Ready to invest

Wojciech Rumian, the vice president of the management board of Hines Polska: The important change is that Hines’ investment in Poland is becoming more visible. In 2019 we closed several really large purchases. They were for logistics and the office sector assets. This activity is going to continue over the next few years. For example the Hines European Core Fund, which is managed by our office in London, has confirmed that it intends to invest in residential projects – in what is called the PRS segment or in other words apartments for rent and student halls. When it comes to other segments, we also have investors interested in high street retail space. This sector is extremely small and very fragmented. We cannot ignore the increasing strength of e-commerce, so in-town logistics facilities such as city logistics and last mile delivery centres are also of interest to us. We will be looking for such investment opportunities in the new year and our main focus will be on the Warsaw market.

Are you currently negotiating any such deals?

Arrangements were made with the fund a few weeks ago; however, because of transactions being negotiated in December, there’s been no time to start work on specific new projects. We are going to start negotiating with developers and brokers in the new year.

So Hines has no plans to enter the shopping centre or retail market for now?

No, we don’t. We’ve been watching global trends. All the analyses and data show a weakening of the retail sector across developed markets except for a few countries in Central Europe, including Poland. However I am certain that this trend is not going to pass by our country. It is just going to happen later.

Hines often talks about the importance of sustainable development...

For us sustainability is an inseparable element of our development and investment activities. It is a goal that we have been pursuing for many years. In the United States Hines has a Conceptual Construction division – an engineering department that makes use of the most modern technological systems but also talks with producers to improve them and adapt them for use in our centres. For example, in other countries we have a development programme to develop commercial buildings that are made mainly of wood.

What is Hines’ approach to the work-life balance, which is a concept that is also becoming increasingly important on the real estate market?

This is not a new development in the market but a question of listening to clients’ expectations and this applies to every sector. The changes we are seeing are mainly due to a younger generation entering the labour market and they take a totally different view of issues such as the workplace, talking with the team, communication channels, mobility and such mundane issues as dress code and business hierarchy. Those companies that can meet the expectations of a new generation of office employees have more chance of being successful. What is it that we are planning to do at Hines? For example we have a team working in cooperation with Hines Squared and it is currently working on a special programme for an office building in Warsaw. There are some restrictions because it is an existing building but I am convinced that both the building’s present and future tenants will appreciate the results. I am mainly thinking about the common areas, which were previously used mainly as formal areas for welcoming guests. We want to use them in the most practical way possible, so we’re planning to increase the publicly available co-working areas to give tenants the chance to work somewhere other than their own desk – where there’s good coffee and comfortable sofas.

You mentioned negotiating three deals in December...

We have a preliminary agreement to sell a portfolio of logistics assets for the Hines Poland Sustainable Income Fund. We also finalised a transaction with Catella in Kraków – we sold two buildings with apartments for rent and one student hall that we had spent the last two years developing for this company. We are also negotiating the purchase of an office building in Warsaw, which should be wrapped up by Christmas with the deal to go through in January.

What property is this?

We are buying the Wola Center building on ul. Przyokopowa from Develia. Our Proximo project is just next door. We are going to use Wola Center for a co-working project in its internal courtyard. We also intend to introduce new services in the retail and service space on the ground floor, which is soon to be vacated by Getin Bank. We want to put something a little more lifestyle-ish in these units.