Strategic points

The 23rd MIPIM trade fair had an air of calm about it. I fondly recall how Cannes seemed a couple of years ago: people spilling onto the streets day and night, and a number of tents with stands that couldn't be fitted into the Palais des Festivals. People then could not tear their eyes away from the luxury on display - especially when it was laid on at the stands of a certain large eastern neighbour of our country. But today fewer companies are employing such original methods to attract people's attention - although PSJ Invest, which encouraged visitors to vote for its office building at the MIPIM Awards, deserves some credit in this respect. Visual images of the building adorned "strategic points" of the dresses of two attractive ladies in an attempt to persuade people into voting for the Prague project, Main Point Karlín. It was eventually awarded the prize for World's Best Office Building Completed in 2011, beating off such competition as Heron Tower in London.
The Cannes event is always keenly anticipated, not just for the sublime experience of catching the first breath of spring or sipping a fine rosé on the beach, but also for the announcement of new projects. This year the French Riviera was where the project for a 180m high-rise building in Warsaw was unveiled by BBI Development. Another reason is the sealing of leasing contracts in the presence of local dignitaries (Echo Investment signed such a deal for the lease of additional space to IT service corporation Tieto in Wrocław, in the presence of the city's deputy mayor) or the signing of letters of intent to sell property. At the annual event one could hear rumours that a number of Warsaw office buildings, including Twarda Tower, International Business Center and Katowice Business Point, would shortly change hands. "MIPIM was another confirmation of investors' continuing appetite for investing in Poland, with particular interest, however, in Warsaw and generally in core products. Interest in other CEE markets does exist, but clearly investors intend to invest less in such locations than in Poland," claimed Soren Rodian Olsen, head of office investment in the capital markets group at Cushman & Wakefield. It's becoming less and less surprising to see the Polish capital listed in the first rank with other cities of the Western Europe. "Warsaw occupies fourth position among the European cities that are attractive to investors, behind only London, Paris and Frankfurt. Investors came in droves to Cannes this year, targeting the best office buildings in Warsaw, with the main focus on the city centre, retail buildings in the ten biggest Polish cities and warehouse property secured by minimum five-year leases," claimed Michał Ćwikliński, director and head of the investment department at Savills in Warsaw.
Polish Airports State Enterprise showcased its concept for a business town on 20 ha of land next to Warsaw Airport, where 165,000 sqm of usable space is now waiting to be developed. "We had dozens of meetings with investors and developers at the show who expressed a strong interest in our project. Slowly the business model to be applied to this development is taking shape. It's been a good start for Chopin Airport City," declared Michał Marzec, the general director of Polish Airports State Enterprise, concluding his visit to Cannes.
This year the number of those attending MIPIM rose by 4 pct, as 19,400 real estate market professionals visited the fair. According to Reed MIDEM, who organised the event, they came from 83 countries. The cities of Warsaw, Gdańsk, Poznań and Wrocław - where the Euro 2012 football championships is to be held - did not miss the show either. In fact, they were quite visible. Euro 2012 was supposed to be the main draw, but the cities' representatives held talks on business cooperation not only for this year and not only with people from the sports business."I have the impression that this year's fair was calmer than previous ones. Although we are preparing for the acquisition of properties, this was not the main focus of my meetings in Cannes. It was the opportunity to gather the representatives of many Polish cities in one place - Warsaw, Poznań, Wrocław and others - and to talk about the possibility of cooperation. As usual, we could hear the opinions of not just the agencies responsible for the CEE region, but also of those in the West. They are seeing a slowdown on the market, such as in the leasing of ?warehouse space," remarked Magdalena Szulc, the business unit director of Segro Central Europe. Other developers of warehouse space came to Cannes as well. At pitching sessions coordinated by Małgorzata Poręba of Eurobuild CEE, Robert Dobrzycki, managing partner for Central & Eastern Europe of Panattoni Europe, and Paul Deverell, business director of CTP, revealed some of the secrets of how to operate successfully on the market. No argument is as powerful as a concrete example, and such an example was a project for Jysk unveiled by Florian Wnuck, key account director of construction company GSE, during the next pitching session. This was a new element to the fair, together with the industrial ?& logistics lounge for demonstrating logistics solutions.
The next MIPIM takes place between March 12th and 15th 2013. Will all the companies be returning to the French Riviera? "This was the first MIPIM experience for Amtel Properties. The MIPIM 2012 fair was quite useful, both for obtaining new contacts and meeting our existing partners. Next year we aim to take part in MIPIM once again, and we'll be glad to present our current and future real estate projects to the public," summed up Anna Zavyalova, corporate communications of Amtel Properties.