Mitiska REIM, an investor specialised in European retail parks, has tannounced the successful second closing of its First Retail International 2 Fund (FRI 2) close to €190 million, significantly exceeding its original target of €120 to 150 million.  Allowing for gearing of 50%, the Fund’s gross investment capability is now close to €400 million.

Delta Holding, a Serbian real estate investor, has announced that next year it will begin building a shopping mall in Banja Luka, the largest investment in the Republic Srpska region of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Award-winning UK architecture practice Make Architects has been appointed to design a state-of-the-art office building in Bratislava’s Central Business District. HB Reavis has been chosen as the development manager of the new mixed-use scheme which will be developed on the site of the current Apollo Business Centre I.

Echo Investment has obtained a building permit for the construction of Galeria Libero, which is to be built on Kościuszki Street in the southern part of Katowice. The investor also concluded a contract with the city authorities concerning the road layout around the facility.

Immofinanz is continuing the expansion of its STOP SHOP retail park chain at a fast pace: the 57th location was opened today in the Polish city of Szczytno. After Niš in Serbia and Świnoujście in Poland, this represents the third project completion in two months and the next locations have already been identified. A STOP SHOP will open in the Serbian city of Valjevo during early autumn, and in Poland preparations are underway for retail parks in Pultusk and Gdynia. These projects will raise the total number of STOP SHOPs to 60.

Horizon Development’s re-conceptualized historic building Váci 1 in Downtown Budapest has fully opened. The 13,750 sqm UNESCO World Heritage listed neo-classicist palace - constructed between 1911 and 1915 - is home to the newest flagship store of H&M.

The total stock of retail parks in Poland totals 1 million sqm GLA (approximately 90 commercial facilities). The 250,000 sqm GLA of retail parks are located in cities of up to 100,000 inhabitants. Retail parks play the role of everyday shopping centres in the small cities. The volume of transactions of retail parks in the cities from 2010 to 2015 amounted to EUR 82 million. It constitutes 30% of the general number of retail project transactions in these locations – according to the report “Small cities, big shopping?” which was created in cooperation of international advisory company Colliers International and global research company GfK.

Cushman & Wakefield announced that now it is the property manager of Union Investment’s two retail properties in Poland: Sarni Stok and Ferio Konin shopping centres.

According to a study by JLL called Destination Europe 2015, Prague has been ranked as the 14th most attractive market in EMEA for the expansion of international and luxury retailers. This reflects the strong purchasing power of the Prague and Czech citizens, as well as its massive volume of tourists. According to TripAdvisor’s Top 10 Global City Destinations 2016, the City of Prague ranks in 4th position in the Europe. Prague’s flourishing retail market has been on property investors´ radar over the past few years and the purchase of Palladium, a prime shopping centre in the very heart of Prague, was one of the largest transactions closed on the Czech real estate market last year.         

On 11th April, the Hungarian government announced their proposal for parliament to abolish the standing law regarding Sunday closing for retail units. The proposal has already passed through voting in the Parliament on 12th April, theoretically allowing stores to open from Sunday, 17 April 2016. The decision comes little more than a year after the legislation came into effect in March 2015, and is likely a direct consequence of recent developments having paved the way for a referendum on the widely criticized policy. According to CBRE’s experience this is a highly appreciated change in legislation by the industry.