The Warsaw office market recorded the second highest demand in the market's history along with record-breaking net absorption. This perfectly summarizes the sentiments on the city's office market. Furthermore, expectations for 2018 remain highly favourable, JLL reports.

Union Investment has secured the future Holiday Inn Gdansk City Centre hotel at an early stage by way of a forward purchase agreement. The hotel will have 240 rooms and be located on Gdańsk’s historic Granary Island. Completion and the transfer of rights and obligations are scheduled for mid-2019. The project has been acquired for the portfolio of one of Union Investment’s institutional funds.

Intercontinental Hotels Group announced the opening of Holiday Inn Warsaw City Centre. Located on the border of Śródmieście and Wola at the junction of Żelazna, Złota and Twarda Streets, the hotel has 256 rooms.

Skanska invests €50 million in the second phase of Generation Park, an office project located in Warsaw, Poland. The second building, with a total leasable area of about 18,300 square meters, will comprise 16 stories above ground and two stories of underground parking. The investment will also include four underground parking levels for the planned third building.

In 2017 the large number of office projects delivered across Poland filled up quickly as occupier demand remained robust. Traditional drivers of demand were joined by emerging trends that are shaping the future of the office market and commercial real estate as a whole. Bolesław Kołodziejczyk, Phd, Head of Research & Advisory at Cresa Poland analysed the Polish office market.

Carrefour opened a new hypermarket in Warsaw. Its customers will be able to take advantage of its digital solutions, as well as range of new commercial concepts, including m-commerce type services, a restaurant right in the heart of the store and a line of checkouts that is not quite what they'll be expecting.

Spaces, a global concept from the Netherlands and offering solutions from the area of flexible workplaces and co-working, has leased 4,200 sqm of office space in Centrum Marszałkowska. As a consequence, Warsaw will become the brand’s first location in Poland. Experts from JLL advised Spaces on the process of negotiating lease terms. Baker & McKenzie supported the company in all legal aspects. The developer of Centrum Marszałkowska - BBI Development - was represented by CBRE and Markowska - Materla law firm.

Berlin Hyp and Erste Group Bank have jointly provided Immofinanz a five year secured loan in the amount of €205 million. The syndicate is providing Immofinanz a “one stop” portfolio-refinancing for their office portfolio in Warsaw and is thus replacing seven existing, individual real estate loans. Agent for this transaction is Berlin Hyp.

London is currently Europe’s leading financial and banking services hub, but it may lose some of its appeal for businesses targeting the European Union following Brexit. Some financial institutions will move their operations outside the UK. Frankfurt and Paris will definitely benefit, but Warsaw is also one of the contenders. Bolesław Kołodziejczyk, PhD, Head of Research & Advisory, Cresa Poland analysed the potential impact of the UK’s departure from the European Union on the Polish market.

NewWork, a serviced offices operator from Hungary, opened their first location in Poland. 3,200 sqm of flexible office space is now available in Warsaw's Wilanów in Wilanów Office Park. NewWork plans to continue their expansion in the Polish capital city and open another 10,000 sqm of serviced office space by the end of 2018.