Glory be to the winners

A part from the tenants awards, experts awards were also handed out at the Eurobuild Awards gala. A total of 104 jurors, who are professionals in different areas of real estate, voted in the categories specific to their knowledge and experience. The smallest jury of experts entrusted with the assessment of a category had 14 members, the largest 39. The names of all the jury members can be found on the www.eurobuildawards.com website. Admittedly, the winners had only a short time for offering their thanks and sharing their thoughts during the ceremony. However, after the official part of the celebrations was over, they could express their feelings as much as they liked while being showered with congratulations at the same time. Here is the list of the winners of the Eurobuild Awards.

Best Shopping Centre in Poland: Arkadia, Warsaw
Piotr Pawłowski
head of development, Unibail-Rodamco

We are very pleased that a facility in our portfolio has been recognised and honoured with such a prestigious Polish property market award. It is even more satisfying for us that the award was granted by a jury comprised of outstanding market professionals. I would like to thank everybody who has contributed to the success of the Arkadia shopping centre and I would like, first of all, to emphasise and express my appreciation for the role of our operations team, in which my colleagues have done everything they can every single day to make our clients and partners satisfied.

Best Office in Poland: Rondo 1, Warsaw
Karol Bartos
vice-president of asset and development management, MGPA

I am very happy that Rondo 1 has received such a prestigious award and has been appreciated by leading industry representatives. This is a sign that our building, one of the first ‘A+’ class office buildings in Poland, remains a benchmark of quality on the Polish office market. I hope that tenants will also appreciate our efforts with regard to improving the standard of the building. We have recently introduced a lot of pro-ecological solutions, installing more environmentally-friendly lighting, rubbish sorting methods and introduced other renewable energy solutions for the building.
I believe that surveying tenants provides us with invaluable feedback when it comes to getting to know the needs of our tenants better, so we are also preparing to carry out such a survey in 2011. Thanks to this we will find out what we can still improve in the facility. According to the assessment of tenants, Rondo 1 was among the top ten projects, but did not win. Why? Because tenants in the Polish market have not had a lot of opportunities to change the location of their offices, and so their comparative knowledge concerning office buildings has certain shortcomings. However, I am sure that our involvement and care for the satisfaction of tenants will make Rondo 1 a reference point on the Polish office property market for many years to come.

Best New Office of the Year: Crown Square, Warsaw
Jarosław Zag—rski
commercial and business development director, Ghelamco Poland

Since the beginning of Ghelamco’s existence our priority has been to develop office space that meets the expectations of even the most demanding clients. The award for the Best Office Project of the Year 2010 for the Crown Square office building gives us even more satisfaction due to the fact that the building was being constructed during the slowdown of the office market, in a period when most investors had completely given up on the construction of their planned projects or had put them on hold. We feel a great sense of satisfaction with the award and promise at the same time that we will not rest on our laurels, and will continue to deliver high quality office space to the Polish market.

Jeroen van der Toolen
managing director, Ghelamco Poland

This prestigious award is a great honour for us and a source of much pride, even more so because Crown Square is the latest – and the third – facility in the Crown Investments complex carried out by  Ghelamco in Warsaw’s Wola district to receive an award. The awareness of the fact that what you do is appreciated by distinguished experts is highly motivating and reassures us that it is worth making the effort so that each of our future projects meets the high requirements demanded by an ever changing market.

Warehouse Developer of the Decade: Panattoni Europe

Best Warehouse in Poland: Panattoni Park Mysłowice
Robert Dobrzycki
managing partner CEE,  Panattoni Europe

Panattoni Europe has been honoured at the Eurobuild Awards Warehouse Developer of the Decade despite the fact that it has only been operating on the market for six years and is the second player in Poland with regard to the amount of warehouse space. The experts on the jury took the view that having a long history and the biggest portfolio of projects are not the main criteria. We have a very low vacancy rate, we are continuing to build and we do not have any major problems with our portfolio. We survived the crisis unscathed, which is the best litmus test for a developer. An analogy can be drawn with cycling, in which it is hard to pinpoint the best cyclist on a flat area, but when a peloton rides up into a difficult mountain area, it quickly becomes apparent who is the best. The experts’ award for Panattoni Park Mysłowice shows the quality of this project yet again. It outstrips all the other projects in the country and is very hard to copy – but of course we will still be trying to do this.

Office Developer of the Decade: Globe Trade Centre
Piotr Kroenke
general director, Globe Trade Centre

This is a very important award for us, even more so because it assesses our activities in the last ten years and in the area where we started our operations, i.e. with the development of office buildings. When I was receiving the award I realised how much we had managed to do in these ten years, and how many wonderful people we had met on the way. Each of them has tried to make our buildings better and better.  The award also honours us because it was judged by a group of eminent experts – people who really know the property market inside out. I would like to express thanks for this on behalf of all the employees of GTC. This is a great Christmas present. The only problem with the beautiful, artistic statuette we were given is that it will be hard to mount it on our wall.

Retail Developer of the Decade: ECE Projektmanagement Polska
Dr. Knut Volquardsen managing director,  ECE Projektmanagement

For me this award is a kind of a farewell gift, because after three years of work here I am going back to our HQ in Hamburg. The nominations for our shopping centres are clear evidence that the combination of the development and management of our existing projects is the right formula for success! I believe that there are excellent prospects for ECE in the CEE region – and especially in Poland – in the future.

Rafał Twarowski
managing director,  ECE Projektmanagement Polska

We feel honoured to have received such a prestigious award. It is a huge distinction for the company, its employees and its business partners, who have helped build ECE’s success. I would also like to mention that all four of our shopping centres in Poland were in the top ten as chosen by tenants in the Best Shopping  Centre in Poland category at the Eurobuild Awards – and Galeria Krakowska was in 2nd place! This is confirmation that our business model is the right one.

Residential Developer of the Decade: Dom Development
Jarosław Szanajca
president of the management board, Dom Development

I am happy that our achievements and high standards have brought fruit in the form of this award. We have been operating on the Polish market since 1996, since when we have continuously tried to implement the best standards and practices, thanks to which we have earned the trust of clients. The award also represents a great responsibility for us, because we do realise that we have become a standard setter for other development companies in Poland. This is why this prestigious award is for us not just an appreciation of our achievements so far, but also provides additional motivation for further work. I would like to use this opportunity to thank first of all Dom Development’s clients, employees and partners, the jury of the competition (which included key representatives of the market), and the organisers of the event for their excellent organisation and the transparent criteria for the award process.

Transaction of the Decade: the sale of Metro AG’s portfolio of 28 shopping centres  to Apollo Rida for more than EUR 700 mln in 2004
Rafał Nowicki
senior vice-president,  Apollo Rida Poland

I believe that being presented with this  Eurobuild Award was one of the simplest tasks of the jury – all that was needed was to compare the value of the nominated transactions, their territorial range and the number of properties. I am sure that if the jury members had also had access to the data regarding the profitability of these investments, our transaction would still have won. When Apollo Rida carried out the deal, Poland was still outside the EU, and the wave of investment was only to come in a year or a year and a half. It is hard for me to imagine carrying out a similar transaction now. The Polish market is more mature. Standards are now high, but we continue to work on meeting them.

Office Agency Team of the Year: Jones Lang LaSalle
Anna Kot
national director and head of the office agency (Poland), Jones Lang LaSalle

On behalf of the whole team I would like to express our thanks for this award. We regard it as proof of the trust we have earned from our clients, but mostly it provides us with a source of motivation and a great incentive to further efforts. Our team succeeded in this by actively advising in over a quarter of all the transactions concluded over 2010. I would personally like to thank all my colleagues from the department for their work and efforts. And we are knuckling down to make 2011 even better!

Tomasz Trz—sło
head of CEE capital markets,  Jones Lang LaSalle

The strong points of the ceremony included the high quality organisation and the large number of eminent guests. I also commend the system of choosing the winners in each category in such an objective way, involving KPMG as an independent arbiter. I believe that the key factor in building the prestige of an event is to maximise objectivity in choosing the winners. As a result, I am convinced that the  Eurobuild Awards Gala will become the leading event for the Polish property market, not merely due to the quality of its organisation, but also because of the transparent and objective method for choosing the winners.

Warehouse Agency of the Year: Colliers International Poland
Monika Rajska
deputy managing partner,  Colliers International Poland

This is a great honour for us, but also a nice surprise because the results of the poll were kept secret until the very last moment. It was a great pleasure for me to hand over the award to my colleagues from the logistics and industrial department. Despite a year full of challenges, we can boast a lot of successes. The award truly crowns many months of intensive work by a group of wonderful people.

RICS Regeneration Awards: The Manufaktura shopping centre, Łódź
Sławomir Murawski
director of the Manufaktura shopping centre, Apsys Management

The RICS Regeneration Award for Manufaktura is yet another confirmation that it is worth investing in non-standard projects which connect history with modernity in a most exceptional way. Manufaktura has re-defined the heart of Łódź, giving new life to the city’s old 19th century factories. Few people in Poland realise that this is the biggest revitalisation scheme in the post-war history of our country. The brick façades of Manufaktura recall the times of the novel ‘The Promised Land’, but the complex is also a great retail and financial success today. It became the project of a lifetime for everyone involved in its regeneration. I have been highly impressed by the professional approach to preparing the gala. It also provides an excellent opportunity for the main players in the industry to meet. And I am convinced that the prestigious RICS Regeneration Award will also enhance the profile of Manufaktura.

Law Firm of the Year: Salans
Piotr Szafarz
partner, head of real estate in Warsaw, Salans

We would like to thank all of those who voted for Salans and our real estate practice to win the Law Firm of the Year award at the 2010 Eurobuild Awards. We are extremely pleased with this recognition, which represents confirmation of the outstanding legal services that our team provides and our market-leading position among international law firms in Poland and throughout the rest of Emerging Europe. 

Best Municipal Project: The Copernicus Science Centre, Warsaw
Tomasz Andryszczyk
spokesman, Warsaw city council

A project which is environmentally and community-friendly, while encouraging people to study and get to know the world, is an ideal candidate for the Eurobuild Award in the Best Municipal Project category. I would like to thank the jury and assure everyone that the opening of the Copernicus Science Centre is only the start of the implementation of the idea to open the city to the Vistula and return the river to its rightful place. At the beginning of this year we will give Park na Podzamczu back to the people of Warsaw, which features a complex of fountains. In two years’ time the left-bank boulevard will be developed, and in three years’ time we will be able to reach the river by underground railway. The Powiśle district will be gradually developed into a genuine Latin quarter.

Sustainable Developer Awards: Skanska Property Poland
Nicklas Lindberg
managing director,  Skanska Property Poland

We are very pleased with this award as we as a company continue our journey towards sustainable development. For the last few years we have laid an emphasis on the education of our own company and our tenants. We are now happy to see a great change in attitudes in this regard. Knowledge of what a green building is all about and the interest in lower service charges and care for the environment is increasing. The culture in Poland is changing and the award is a sign of this. We are on the right track.

Tax and Financial Advisory: PricewaterhouseCoopers
Brian O’Brien
partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers

If the attendance and atmosphere at the Eurobuild Awards 2010 is anything to go by, the real estate industry is bouncing back with a vengeance. PwC being awarded the Tax and Financial Advisor of the year by the leading real estate professionals in the business is truly a great honour for us. I am delighted for our team, who have worked very hard during a difficult period, but hopefully better times are on the way back. The Awards was a great opportunity to catch up with old friends from the industry and meet new ones. Well done to Eurobuild for organising such a prestigious event.

Financing Provider of the Year: Westdeutsche ImmobilienBank
Maciej Tuszyński
executive director,  representative office Warsaw,  Westdeutsche ImmobilienBank

The last year was marked by signs of recovery, a process we should see continuing over 2011, but nevertheless it was still a difficult year for the banking industry. This only means that the award is of even greater worth for our bank. The methodology used for the awards is a novelty on the Polish real estate market. I personally find the first ever tenants’ survey very useful and would like to congratulate the organisers on this new approach. We are happy that our activities on the Polish market, one of the core markets for our bank, has been noticed and praised in such an important period for us. Even though the bank is in the process of changing ownership, WestImmo has nevertheless remained quite an active lender in Poland. Hopefully, our activities this year will provide us with strong arguments to compete again for the Eurobuild 2011 award.