This could be the first time

Before some of you blush and others become melancholic and sentimental, I would like to tell you about my first few times, because there is a first time for everything. The first time you remember your child taking their first few steps; when they first say ‘mama’ or even ‘dada’ (as was the case with my son); or when you fall in love for the first time on your holidays; or when – and here we finally land in the mundane world of real estate – somebody calls you up with the news that they are changing their job, launching a new brand onto the Polish market and establishing a company... and you hear the name Apleona GVA for the first time. And then the two of you discuss these plans, which you can read about in this issue (‘‘Muscling in on the Scene’, p. 55). The first time I heard the name Rockcastle was in 2014. Two years later I found out that Marek Noetzel, whom I had already known for years, was joining the company. And now, a year later, he is finally able to give us a comprehensive rundown of Rockcastle’s plans for Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary (Rocking the Retail Scene, p. 64). For those people entering the REIT sector in Poland, their first time is to take place in January 2018, but there is still a long road ahead of them, which we cover in the article ‘Polishing Diamonds or Chasing our Tails’ (p. 52). So the months ahead of us look set to be very hot indeed...