PL

Edition 3 (178) March 2013

Editorial

Don't get your knickers in a twist

March is here. In Poland March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb, so it's time for the French Riviera. Cannes: the red carpet, le Palais des Festivals, la Croisette Boulevard and the best brands in the world. French chic. And when it comes to fashion, it's worth paying attention to what is being worn by those attending the MIPIM fair.

Ewa Andrzejewska
Investment & finance

Griffin ready to sink its teeth

POLAND The griffin is a mythical animal - a lion with the head and wings of an eagle. According to legend, it is a quick, bold, and fierce creature known for accumulating and guarding treasure and gold. And this is what Griffin Group is like, too.The investment fund manager was established in 2007 by Przemysław Krych, the founder of private equity fund Cornerstone Partners. It immediately raised EUR 150 mln mainly from institutional investors (95 pct of its capital), including the Abu Dhabi Investment Council.

Radosław Górecki
Investment & finance

Moving to action stations

POLAND In the latest stage of its modernisation drive, PKP SA, the real estate division of the Polish state railway company, is to enter into negotiations with major developers for the redevelopment of the buildings and area of the Warszawa Gdańska (Warsaw Gdański) train station.

Nathan North
Retail & leisure

Mayland and the new deal

POLAND The new year has brought with it new challenges for Mayland Real Estate. The management board of the company has been transformed: Maciej Kiełbicki has been promoted to managing director, while Olivier Gérard-Coeste and Elio Szmawonian have become board members. Yann Guen, after many years at the company, has now resigned from the position of deputy president of the management board. The new executive of the company has prepared a strategy based, on the one hand, on further active development operations and, on the other, on more involvement in shopping centre management.

Aneta Cichla
Architecture

Residents: the best experts on their own backyards

POLAND Warsaw. The old market square in Mariensztat and a small area at ul. Krochmalna 3. Both places are abandoned, neglected and unattractive. This kind of public space is basically a no man's land - unused, sad and deserted. But this could change. The Na Miejscu foundation has taken an interest in both these areas. Its goal? To restore life to these forgotten spots of the city.

Radosław Górecki
Architecture

The ten year plan

ROMANIA A new masterplan is to be drawn up to bring some harmony and much-needed flexibility to Bucharest's post-communist architectural mess. The city has just completed a tender for a new urban masterplan and awarded the RON 4.2 mln (app. EUR 1 mln) contract to a consortium led by the Ion Mincu University of Architecture and Urbanism, including Spanish urban design studio Arnaiz Consultores, British-American architectural studio Aecom, and IT companies Intergraf and Sinergetics.

Alex Hayes
Stock market report

Construction up despite the gloom

January brought with it a winter cooling of the increases on the WSE. Despite the upward movement on the global stock exchanges, mainly in America, in Poland investors are looking anxiously at increasingly bad macroeconomic data

(Mir)
Feature

We are building! Are you buying?

Regional markets have seen a small number of transactions and for rather small amounts. Is anyone willing to invest in smaller towns? It turns out that such deals do exist. Developers, tenants and funds are interested in office projects outside the capitals

Zuzanna Wiak, Nathan North
Office & mixed-use development

Steady state in leasing

In unstable economic times it is vital to have a stable client - the kind that pays on time and stays for a long time. These conditions are fulfilled by office tenants from the public sector, who are increasingly populating office complexes

Aneta Cichla
Office & mixed-use development

On the waterfront

Large former industrial sites along river banks and coastlines might seem to be prime real estate for redevelopment, but such investments frequently run into unexpected delays

Alex Hayes
Green projects

Living in a dump

Sorting, recycling and salvaging - such words are increasingly on the lips of developers and facility managers when it comes to waste management. But is concern for the environment strong enough to introduce innovative but unpopular solutions?

Aneta Cichla, Zuzanna Wiak
Architecture

The banal and the beautiful

With construction work underway on The Theatre of Two Times on the site of a former 17th century Shakespearean theatre in Gdańsk, 'Eurobuild CEE' caught up with the designer of the project, Italian architect Renato Rizzi, at the Budma 2013 construction fair in Poznań to talk about the controversy behind it and his philosophy

Nathan North
Architecture

Beauty for export

They enjoy the most success in Russia - but things are not easy for them even there. Polish and Czech architects still have to compete with local studios and some rather formidable international competition

Radosław Górecki
Events

Communication platform

A developer goes up to a city official and... this could be the beginning of a joke. But what is the reality like? Do developers get on with the boroughs, local councils and city officials? What expectations do the parties have towards each other? These were the questions answered at the first Investment Conference for the capital's Metropolitan and outlying Boroughs: 'City Vision Warsaw', which was organised by Eurobuild Conferences

Zuzanna Wiak
Endpiece

Women of their word

There are a few women on the real estate market who investors and developers have completely fallen head over heels in love with. these women, as described in this column, not only seduce men, but also successfully show them who calls the shots

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