Coffee with Craig Show – daily CRE news covering the CEE region, Thursday, October 6, with Winston Norman, Editor and Chief of EuropaProperty.com.
Helaba and Altaal sign green building deal to increase loan to €128 million
At this year’s EXPO Real, Helaba and its customer Altaal closed a deal to acquire an office building with the financing of €40 million. This transaction brings the total loan amount provided by Helaba to Altaal and its brown-to-green platform, Colony, to €128 million spanning four buildings. Today, Colony is 100 percent environmentally certified with tier-1 tenants throughout the entire portfolio.
Lars Hegg, Head of Real Estate Finance Nordics at Helaba, commented: “Through its office strategy Colony, Altaal focuses on green and brown-to-green strategies which is a perfect fit with Helaba’s focus on green financing. Helaba is happy to be at Altaal’s side and grow together in the Nordics, which is a key market for us.”
Stefan Gattberg, Co-founder at Altaal and chairman of Colony, added: “Helsinki as a market continues to show fundamental strength in terms of political prudence, land-lord stability and rent affordability which we believe are key factors in the current market.”
Flexiparks expands in Vienna’s north
Flexiparks has secured a 9,000 sqm large site for the expansion of their business park. Directly next to the already existing “Flexiparks Wien Nord I”
Flexiparks serves a previously non-existent market niche with the realisation of flexible and individually designable spaces for companies from the SME sector up to leading international companies. In Austria, Vienna, Graz, and Linz signify the hotspots for industrial and logistics activities. Flexiparks is planning further developments near these cities, but also in other relevant regions in Austria and the entire CE region.
After the completion of the expansion planned for Q4 2023, the market value of “Flexiparks Vienna North” will be at a volume of +€20 million. With a total area of 8,700 sqm of ultra-modern warehouse space suitable for storage, city logistics, service and showroom use, Flexiparks Vienna North fully meets the increasing market demands.
SES Spar now uses TÜV Austria certified energy management system in three countries
SES Spar European Shopping Centers has been working with an energy management system at all of its centres since 2019. The system was successfully re-certified by TÜV AUSTRIA earlier this year. The real estate company has also implemented and certified the energy management system at all INTERSPAR stores and Maximarkt locations within the Group. The same system has been in use in both Slovenia and Italy since August 2022 and has been successfully certified by TÜV AUSTRIA.
SES has consistently relied on solutions for the energy-efficient operation of its shopping centres for many years. In recent years, energy consumption has been reduced by up to 40 percent, depending on the centre. SES has been committed to making a strong contribution to climate protection through sustainable real estate development with clear climate targets.
In light of the current energy situation, SES is looking at every additional opportunity to further conserve energy. SES shopping centers in Austria and Italy operate on 100 percent green electricity, which is also utilized to power all of the e-charging stations installed at the shopping centres, among other things.
Cargus launches network of parcel lockers in Romania
This month, Cargus will place 300 parcel lockers in Bucharest, as the first step of its plan to invest in the out-of-home delivery solution, SHIP & GO, with essential benefits for online shops and consumers. They are to be placed in retail networks and easy-to-reach locations.
The parcel lockers will be Cargus’ major focus with an estimated investment of €40 million in the following 2.5 years, in extending the network in other major cities.
The lockers are produced by SwipBox, an international supplier of automated parcel machines (APM) solutions, with a presence in over 60 countries.
“The launch of Cargus’ lockers represents an important milestone in our development strategy – they complete our national out-of-home network and offer an innovative solution to e-commerce businesses, local and international, and their customers”, says Olivier Van Houtte, CEO of Cargus.
