ARTICLES LABELLED WITH TAG retail

Knight Frank has been appointed asset manager, property manager and sole agency of the Zgorzelec Plaza shopping and entertainment centre. A new lease agreement with a fitness services provider has also been signed recently.

German fashion retailer Peek&Cloppenburg has leased 5,200 sqm in the extension of the AFI Palace Cotroceni shopping mall in Bucharest. Extension work to add 6,800 sqm of GLA to the mall is to be completed in May, bringing the total leasable area up to approximately 90,000 sqm. Peek&Cloppenburg’s new store is set to open this autumn.

Arcona Capital has announced that its Arcona Property Fund is on course to complete the acquisition from RECE of a portfolio of 11 neighbourhood shopping centres in Poland for €25.9 million. Arcona has already completed on eight of the centres and will complete on the other three centres by the end of the first quarter of 2017.

CPI Property Group anticipates the acquisition of a retail portfolio located in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Romania from funds managed by CBRE Global Investors. If completed, this can become the largest real estate deal of the region in 2017.

CBRE Global Investors has acquired, on behalf of a separate account client, Prague’s Letňany Shopping Centre from Tesco. The value of the transaction has not been disclosed.

International real estate advisor Savills has reported that investors into Europe’s retail sector are shifting their interest to some of the continent’s non-core markets. Investment into Europe’s retail sector during Q1-Q3 2016 reached €33.3 billion across the 15 markets that Savills covers, down 28% from the 2015 record volume. However, despite the overall drop of total turnover in the two largest markets of the UK (-18%) and Germany (-46%) during this time period, Europe’s non-core markets in contrast have experienced a significant rise in retail investment. These include: Ireland (223% to €1.46 billion); Poland (126% to €1.4 billion) and Italy (119% to €1.8 billion).

The Budapest office of CBRE has been appointed property manager and leasing agent of M7 Real Estate’s new Hungarian property portfolio. M7 Real Estate has acquired two retail centres, the Atom Center in Paks and Csillagvár in Budapest, and the Acélforma industrial hall in Dunaharaszti. The British investor has commissioned CBRE with the management and leasing of almost 22,000 sqm of GLA.

Real Estate Central Europe Group has finalised its sale of eight retail and service schemes totalling more than 16,000 sqm to Dutch investment fund Arcona Property Fund. Cushman & Wakefield represented the vendor in the transaction.

Strong demand across all investment sectors is expected to continue into 2017 in the Czech Republic and the €3 billion boundary could be exceeded once again. Retail is likely to become the most popular asset class next year, followed by offices and industrial. CBRE has released the Czech Republic Real Estate Market Outlook 2017.

Slovak investor IAD Investments, acting through its fund Prvý realitný fond o.p.f., has purchased Laugaricio Shopping Centre in Trenčín, Slovakia. The original owners were private investors represented by Mint Investments. This sale, the largest property transaction in Slovakia this year, was brokered by Cushman & Wakefield.