Although the majority of modern office stock is concentrated in Poland’s largest metropolitan areas, companies are increasingly looking beyond the core markets for office space Cushman & Wakefield has prepared a report on 12 alternative locations for BSS tenants.

The competition authorities of Poland, Hungary and Serbia have all granted consent for Optimum Ventures Private Equity Fund’s takeover of a majority shareholding (61.49%) in Globe Trade Centre S.A., a Polish company trading on the Warsaw Stock Exchange and Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

Marynarska Point 2, an office building in Warsaw owned by Bluehouse Capital, is currently undergoing refurbishment. As part of the work underway, its reception lobby will be fully remodelled. The building’s surroundings will also be redesigned.

Panattoni has completed the construction of the 8,260-square-metre logistics centre for DSV Solutions in Skarbimierz. The BTS facility is dedicated to handling the logistics of two Mondelēz International production plants in the vicinity – a chocolate factory and a gum & candy factory. The project was delivered at the Wałbrzych Special Economic Zone, and logistics operations at the facility started two weeks early – at the end of April.

Adventum International, a Malta-based boutique investment fund manager, has acquired yet another property in Poland. The 17, 000 sqm Centrum Orlat office building at Plac Lwowskich in Wrocław was purchased from seller EFL Service S.A. being part of the financial groups of the European Leasing Fund S. A. With this transaction Adventum’s Quartum Polish office portfolio grew to 63.000 sqm GLA.

In Q1 2020, Echo Investment commissioned four housing projects and two office buildings, sold 399 apartments and handed over 190 to clients, started the rental process in the second Resi4Rent building in Wrocław and secured the purchase of attractive plots of land on which 4,000 apartments can be built. During this time, the Group’s next profit exceeded PLN 40 million.

Cushman & Wakefield won a double mandate for the property and asset management of the Nowogrodzka Square office building which was recently acquired by Amundi Real Estate from developer Yareal.

Europi Property Group has acquired a 12.3% stake in Capital Park, an owner, operator and developer of office and mixed-use assets in Poland, predominantly Warsaw. While EPG had been tracking the company since late 2019, the opportunity to invest arose as a result of the market distress in March, enabling the acquisition at an attractive discount to the net asset value.

In Q1 2020, the total office stock of Poland’s nine largest markets (Warsaw, Krakow, Wrocław, Tricity, the Upper Silesian and Zagłębie Metropolis, Poznań, Łódź, Lublin, and Szczecin) reached close to 11.3 million sqm, up by 5% on the same period in 2019. Cushman & Wakefield summarised Q1 2020 on the Polish office market.

According to a study conducted by research body Inquiry for the Polish Council of Shopping Centres (PRCH), 51% of those surveyed visited shopping centres in the first week after they reopened following the easing of the lockdown measures. Out of these, 64% visited shopping centres to make specific purchases, while 31% went to browse the stores or to seek out promotions.