WOOD & Company Real Estate Fund will acquire the Astrum Business Park office building in Warsaw from Prochem S.A. and the LFI investment fund, marking the Fund’s first real estate acquisition in Poland. The building has a total leasable area of over 23,000 sqm and is fully leased. The transaction is subject to the tax ruling procedure, the company announces on its website.
Wood & Company Office Sub-Fund, which is now entering the Polish market with the acquisition in Warsaw, is one of the largest real estate funds focused on office buildings in the capital cities of the CEE region. The average annual return of the Office Sub-Fund, since its inception, is 12.04%. “Poland is the largest market in the CEE region and the sixth-largest in the EU. It is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. Wood & Co. has been active in Warsaw for three decades. Our knowledge of the local capital market is broad-based and long-standing, having managed various transactional mandates and listings on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. We have been analysing the Warsaw real estate market intensively for more than two years, and we see great potential in being a part of this dynamically developing and most liquid country in Central and Eastern Europe,“ says Vladimír Jaroš, CEO of Wood & Company.
Astrum Business Park is positioned at the intersection of two main city arteries – Jerozolimskie Avenue and Łopuszańska Street – with accessibility from all parts of Warsaw. There are several bus stops and a train station in close proximity, and Frédéric Chopin Airport is five kilometres away. The construction was completed in two phases, in 2016 and 2018. The six-storey complex offers a leasable area of over 23,000 sqm. Key tenants are Lionbridge, Prochem S.A., Xerox, Robert Bosch and GEA Process Engineering. The building is BREEAM certified. It falls into technical class A, has a high standard of design of common areas, exposure to daylight and an innovative ventilation system.
“The situation in the Polish real estate market is positive and the Astrum Business Park building fulfils our strategy and our investment criteria perfectly. It is a quality Class A building in an attractive location, with good potential,” adds Jiří Hrbáček, Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of Wood & Company Real Estate Fund, and continues: “with over six million sqm of leasable area, Warsaw is the largest and fastest-growing office market in Central and Eastern Europe. It is also one of the most appealing investment destinations in the region. This is why we are opening the path into this market as well”.
Jiří Hrbáček
Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors, Portfolio Manager
Wood & Company
Wood & Company Real Estate Fund will purchase the property from Irydion Sp. z o.o., a joint venture of the prominent engineering firm Prochem S.A. and an LFI 1 FIZAN investment fund. Colliers, Duch / Lisicki & Partners and Deloitte assisted on the sell-side. The purchaser was represented by Dentons, Cushman & Wakefield, TPA and Sentient.
“We are very glad that Astrum Business Park has found recognition in the eyes of such a renowned investor as Wood & Company Real Estate Fund. I am sure this fully-let, modern, ecological and well-located office building will meet its high expectations. We are certain that, under the new owner, the asset will continue its high performance,” says Krzysztof Marczak, CEO of Irydion Sp. z o.o., and the Vice President, CFO of Prochem S.A.
“The sale of Astrum Business Park to Wood & Company is an important milestone for our fund. I would like to thank all parties involved in the process, in particular, the Prochem S.A. team for professional co-operation on the development of this office building and the successful exit,” says Seweryn Krajewski, vice president of the supervisory board of Irydion Sp. z o.o. and the representative of LFI 1 FIZAN.
