ARTICLES LABELLED WITH TAG shopping

The ParkLake shopping mall in Bucharest, developed by a joint venture of Sonae Sierra and Caelum Development, has received a BREEAM certification with a rating of ‘Excellent’.

Commerz Real has founded a joint venture together with Unibail-Rodamco for the Prague shopping centre Metropole Zlicin, which has until recently been fully owned by its open-ended real estate fund hausInvest. To this end it has sold 50 per cent of its shares in the property company to Unibail-Rodamco. It was agreed that confidentiality be maintained on the purchase price. Unibail-Rodamco will be assuming the asset and property management for the centre.

Echo Investment and EPP (Echo Polska Properties) have concluded a loan agreement worth €175 million and a VAT loan of PLN 34 million with Bank Zachodni WBK S.A. as an agent as well as PKO Bank Polski S.A. and Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego. The acquired funds will be used for the construction of Galeria Młociny in Warsaw. The loan was granted for the construction period and a five-year investment period.

French real estate group Catinvest plans to expand Electroputere Parc, the company’s shopping mall in Craiova, by 9,200 sqm. The group has also started the construction of an additional mixed-use building which will comprise 12,000 sqm of retail space, 15,000 sqm of Class A office space and over 700 underground parking spaces. Total investment in will exceed €70 million by the end of 2018.

Poland continues to attract brands from across Europe. The significance and the share of the Food & Beverage proposition within shopping centers continues to grow. Furthermore, both new retail concepts and mixed-use projects have become increasingly popular as well. JLL presents its summary of the Polish retail market as of the end of Q3 2017.

Poland is an attractive market to global investors. Its key strengths include the large population of nearly 40 million, a strategic location in Europe, strong economic growth and infrastructure developments, encouraging an increasing number of retailers to enter the Polish market. Contrary to appearances, deciding whether to expand is not an easy task even for the strongest corporations. Szymon Łukasik, Head of the Retail Department at Cresa Poland wrote about launching new brands on the Polish market.

Echo Investment has concluded a contract with Bank Zachodni WBK S.A. as an agent as well as Bank BGŻ BNP Paribas S.A. concerning a loan of over €67.5 million and a VAT loan of PLN 12 mln. The funds will be used for the construction of Galeria Libero in Katowice.

Immofinanz has completed and opened a further shopping centre under its Vivo! retail brand in the Polish city of Krosno. Vivo! Krosno has approx. 21,000 sqm of rentable space and is fully occupied. This shopping centre expands Immofinanz‘s Vivo! portfolio to ten locations in four countries with more than 314,000 sqm of rentable space.

REICO, Česká spořitelna’s real estate fund manager, expanded its Polish portfolio by the acquisition of the Galeria Sloneczna shopping centre in Radom. The value of the fund’s new acquisition is approximately €164 million (CZK 4.3 billion). The seller is an American insurance group that developed the asset in a joint venture partnership with AIG/Lincoln (now White Star Real Estate).

Master Management Group is planning the first European outlet centre with a village designed concept in Poland. The first phase of the project, located in Łomna near Warsaw, close to the Warsaw – Gdańsk route and Modlin Airport, will have an area of almost 19,000 sqm. The second phase will deliver a further 30,000 sqm.