Amstar wants more

“Amstar is currently focused on ensuring the success of Zlota 44, though we will plan to look for new investment opportunities in Poland and other countries within the CEE region when the time is right,” said Jeffrey Stonger, vice president of Amstar, an US fund that bought Złota 44 project together with BBI Development in 2014. The company is currently mostly active in Turkey. “In addition to Turkey and Poland, Amstar has identified Czech Republic, Romania and Hungary as potentially interesting countries to invest,” Jeffrey Stonger told ‘Eurobuild CEE’.

When entering a new market, Amstar claims to focus on a number of factors, including strong economic growth, a stable political environment and a supply/demand imbalance within the property market. “For all of our international investments we utilize a joint venture structure with a local operator, so it is crucial for us to find best-in-class development partners within each market. As for targeted market segments, Amstar invests in all major property types (residential – not only highest class, retail, logistics and office) and we target opportunistic investments, meaning most of our projects are either ground-up development or re-development. Similar to our experience with Zlota 44 in Warsaw, when we enter a new market we tend to focus on the largest cities with the best growth prospects,” said the Amstar’s vice president. “At the moment we are not looking for anything else in Poland, but in longer term we will certainly look at a growing platform within three four years,” he added.

The purchase of Złota 44 project was preceded by several years of the market analysing. “We thought it is good opportunity when we found Złota 44. Polish market deserves the same amenities and services that the rest of the world has and do not exist here. The concept is great,” told us Jeffrey Stonger.

Amstar bought the designed by Daniel Liebeskind residential skyscraper for EUR 50 mln plus the credit pay off. “We have another EUR 50-60 mln to put into the project, to deliver it to the market,” said Amstar’s representative. Sale of Złota’s apartments will take 36-48 months.