PL

Edition 1 (207) January 2016

Editorial

Bidding the last year goodbye

It’s evening and the room is lit by discreet lamps. When I lean forward to check what flavour I am about to taste, the light reflects off my wine glass.

Ewa Andrzejewska
Investment & finance

Qualia not for Griffin

POLAND PKO Bank Polski is now not going to sell its development subsidiary to a fund managed by Griffin Group. A year ago the bank and Griffin announced the signing of a letter of intent for the purchase of Qualia Development and two office buildings from the bank’s portfolio. This would have involved the acquisition of all the shares in Qualia by Griffin as well as office buildings at ul. Nowogrodzka 35/41 and ul. Sienkiewicza 12/14 in Warsaw, with the transaction to have been finalised at the end of Q1 or early Q2 2015.

Tomasz Szpyt
Retail & leisure

Warsaw a magnet for luxury

EUROPE Warsaw is an excellent place for luxury brands to expand. The case for doing so is even more compelling considering the fact that an increasing supply of good quality commercial space is being developed on high streets. Such were the conclusions reached at the ‘Warsaw: New development Direction for Luxury Brands in Poland’ conference, which took place on November 25th at the Polish Embassy in Paris.

Aneta Cichla
Retail & leisure

IKEA poised for future growth?

WORLD The world’s largest furniture retailer IKEA has been enjoying double-digit growth as it keeps developing three vital elements of its strategy: its traditional store portfolio, its ground-breaking small store concept and its digital presence.

Agata Kłapeć
Retail & leisure

Maxi expansion

POLAND German pet food and accessories store chain Maxi Zoo has plans to expand and open new stores in Poland. The company has six stores in the country at the moment – three in Warsaw (Sadyba Best Mall, next to E.Leclerc in Włochy district and adjacent to Kaufland in Białołęka), two in Poznań (CH Franowo and Winogrady) and one in Vendo Park in Milanówek. “Poland is our youngest daughter.

Anna Pakulniewicz
Warehouse & industrial

Panattoni ventures south of the Carpathians

CEE REGION Warehouse developer Panattoni Europe, which operates in Poland, the Czech Republic and Germany, among others, is now entering Romania.

Stock market report

Weak ending to a weak year

The Christmas period did nothing to improve the mood on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. In fact, the indexes plummeted, mostly due to political concerns and, to a lesser extent, the first increase in US interest rates in almost ten years. Added to the current low fuel prices, this made it less attractive to invest in emerging markets

Investment & finance

Action stations

The cooperation between the railway companies and commercial developers has been promising so far. The benefits available to both provide the perfect conditions for such a symbiosis

Rafał Ostrowski
Eurobuild Awards

Six appeal

The sixth Eurobuild Awards Gala held on December 3rd was the biggest yet. Indeed, the event has grown so big that it took a new venue, the DoubleTree by Hilton in Warsaw, to accommodate all the 900 guests from the region’s property sector

NN
Investment & finance

Taking over the scene

The closing of the transaction by US investor TPG Real Estate to take over Hungarian developer TriGranit, its asset management division and a large section of its property portfolio, was finally announced in early December after months of negotiations. TPG has entered the Central European market in a big way in the last few years, through the acquisitions of P3 Logistic Parks in late 2013, DTZ in 2014 and this year of C&W, which DTZ has been merged into. For TriGranit’s view of the latest takeover, we spoke to Árpád Török, the CEO of TriGranit Corporation

Nathan North
Events

Facing the challenges ahead

Representatives of the commercial property sector in Poland meet every year to review the last twelve months and make their forecasts for the future. Things were no different this time at the 21st Annual Commercial Property Market Conference, which took place on December 2nd in the Muranów Conference Center in Warsaw

AC
Events

Shadow and light

As they do every year, in November representatives of the retail sector met on the French Riviera. This Mapic meeting, however, was quieter and more subdued due to the attacks in Paris. Was it worth going to Cannes? Those who attended invariably claim that it was definitely worth it – and the list of reasons for this is long

And
Endpiece

The human factor

We clicked straight away. Not a minute had passed and I knew that we had dozens of similar adventures worth writing about ahead of us. A few weeks later I could not imagine spending a day without him. Now, five years on and after everything we have been through together – with a heart as icy as hands without gloves in the January cold – I am leaving him for a younger one. Am I mean?

Agata Kłapeć
Events

Band of brokers

It was a night of surprises. One of them could have been found in a secret performance of the very talented JLL Band. It turns out that property people might have more in common with rockers than most think

Eurobuild Awards

In the eyes of the winners

On December 3rd, 2015, Representatives of the leading companies of the commercial property market gathered in the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel in Warsaw to honour the best companies and projects in 30 categories

Tomasz Szpyt
Eurobuild Awards

Green wings in a glade of gold

The GreenWings Offices building in Warsaw, developed by Okre Development, was chosen by tenants as the best office building in Poland – seeing off almost fifty rivals

Tomasz Szpyt
Eurobuild Awards

It’s about self-discipline

The tenants’ ‘Office Manager of the Year’ award for 2015 has been jointly awarded to two managers from Dyskret Polska, who look after the Vinci Office Center building in Kraków. Anna Jakubowska, the property manager, and Bogusław Staszkiewicz, the technical director, told us what characteristics a building manager needs to have in order to win such an honour

Interview conducted by Tomasz Szpyt
Eurobuild Awards

Jewel in the crown

The four-year-old, now fully leased Galeria Korona Kielce in the centre of that city, was judged to be the best shopping centre in the country in 2015 by tenants surveyed by Millward Brown for ‘Eurobuild CEE’. What’s the secret of its success?

Agata Kłapeć
Eurobuild Awards

Two crowns for Kielce

Galeria Korona triumphed twice at the Eurobuild Awards 2015. its managing director, Michał Góźdź, was voted Shopping Centre Manager of the Year. He revealed to us how to achieve growth in annual turnover of almost 40 pct during apparently bad times for retail

Eurobuild Awards

Double success

The warehouse park in Stryków has won the best warehouse of the year in Poland award for the second time in a row. However, this time it was under the supervision of a new facility manager acting on behalf of the Logicor platform

Rafał Ostrowski
Eurobuild Awards

Openness and trust

Roman Skowroński, the head of the asset management department for Central and Eastern Europe of the Logicor platform, was voted (jointly with Maciej Stacha of Logistic City) the best warehouse manager by tenants. In an interview for ‘Eurobuild CEE’, he argues that the most important thing is to understand tenants’ needs

Interview conducted by Rafał Ostrowski
Eurobuild Awards

We give more

Maciej Stacha, the proxy of the management board of Logistic City, on how to achieve work satisfaction, keeping promises and giving extra commitment. At the recent Eurobuild Awards Gala he received the statuette for the best warehouse property manager in Poland

Interview by Rafał Ostrowski
Eurobuild Awards

Into the crystal ball

Last year was considered to be worthy of – at the very least – a good grade by the commercial real estate sector. The expectations for the next twelve months are also quite high and the market data is promising

Aneta Cichla, Tomasz Szpyt

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