News

POLAND AWZ Deweloper has started ground work on the site of the Awiator luxury apartment building in the Bartodzieje district in Bydgoszcz.

Vantage sees 45 pct sales growth

POLAND Vantage Development sold 305 homes in Q4 2017 (up by 45 pct y-o-y) and 1,034 throughout 2017 (up by 37 pct y-o-y).

Investment & finance

Robyg closer to acquisition

POLAND Goldman Sachs subsidiary Bricks Acquisitions has received approval from the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection [UOKiK] to take over residential developer Robyg.

Ever more sales via smartphones

POLAND Smartphones are becoming more important in online trade.

Altus ups stake in Tower Investments

Aneta Cichla

POLAND Altus TFI has reported that it has acquired a right to purchase series C shares in retail chain developer Tower Investments. This will result in Altus increasing its stake from 5 pct (which it has held since 2017) to 11.22 pct in the Warsaw based company.

Romanian investment environment improves

ROMANIA Last year’s property investment volume for Romania is estimated at almost EUR1 bln, which is 10 pct higher than in 2016 (EUR 890 mln), according to figures from Jll.

Libero with new shoes

POLAND Polish shoe brand Gino Rossi is to open a store in the Libero shopping centre in Katowice.

Technology

Artistic installation dines on smog

Office & mixed-use development

POLAND The Dust Eater [Zjadacz Kurzu] is a 4m sculpture by Kuba Bąkowski and a machine that absorbs smog and examines the quality of the air. The sculpture is most probably to be erected in both Warsaw and Wrocław this year.

Work starts on Second phase of Generation Park

Tomasz Szpyt-Grzegórski

POLAND In December 2017, Skanska began the construction of the second stage of the Generation Park office complex in Warsaw.

Orco buys 380 ha

CZECH REPUBLIC Orco has purchased plots with a combined area of 380-ha in the north and west of the Czech Republic from its mother company CPI Property Group.

Fewer stores, higher turnover

Aneta Cichla

POLAND In December 2017 the retail area of Redan reduced its fashion retail area for brands such as Top Secret, Troll and Drywash by 11 pct but its revenue for the month was up by 1 pct y-o-y to app. PLN 26 mln.

Benefit Systems without Calypso

POLAND Benefit Systems has informed the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection [UOKiK] that it will no longer attempt to takeover Calypso Fitness due to the concerns raised by the competition authority about a possible reduction in competition on the market for sports and recreational packages offered to employers.

Good quarter for Inpro

POLAND The Inpro group signed preliminary sales contracts for 739 apartments net between January and December 2017, up by 90 pct y-o-y.

Dino to open 1,200 stores by the end of 2020

POLAND In 2017 Dino Polska, opened 147 Dino grocery stores in 12 provinces. Its total sales area came to over 295,000 sqm at the end of 2017, representing a 23.8 pct increase y-o-y.

Lokum buys grain plant

POLAND Olczyk Lokum 13 A subsidiary of Lokum Deweloper has purchased the perpetual usufruct to a former industrial complex of Polskie Zakłady Zboźowe [Polish Grain Plant] on ul. Klimeckiego in Kraków.

Investment & finance

Slovak investor enters Poland

Rafał Ostrowski
journalist

POLAND Real estate investment fund ZFP realitní fond managed by ZFP Investments, which is part of the Slovak asset manager IAD Investments, has finalised the acquisition of the Kotlarska 11 office project in Kraków from UBM for EUR 30 mln.

Office & mixed-use development

Solteq leases space in Wrocław 101

Rafał Ostrowski
journalist

POLAND Finnish IT company Solteq has leased almost 600 sqm of space in the Wrocław 101 office building in Wrocław.

Office & mixed-use development

MBank flits to Butterfly

Nathan North
managing editor (English section)

CZECH REPUBLIC MBank is to move its Prague head office from the Futurama Business Park to Butterfly (formerly AFI Karlín) in Prague’s Karlín district.

Hotels

MGallery enters the Balkans

BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA The first MGallery by Sofitel hotel has opened in the Balkans.

Glorious gastronomy in the granary