Coffee with Craig Show – daily CRE news covering the CEE region, Monday, March 13, with Winston Norman, Editor and Chief of EuropaProperty.com.
United Benefits Holding is entering the Polish market by acquiring Silver Forum
UNITED BENEFITS HOLDING is entering the Polish real estate market: By acquiring the 16,000 sqm Silver Forum office building in Wroclaw. The company plans to optimize the property with a focus on ESG standards and mobility, thus leveraging the property’s value-add potential.
Michael Klement, CEO of United Benefits Holding: “Wroclaw is the third largest city in Poland. The country with the lowest recession rate in the EU – this is another factor that persuaded us to enter this market over the long term.”
With its subsidiary INVESTER United Benefits as a project developer, the Group aims to develop the property architecturally and with a view to fulfilling sustainability requirements, so the Group can reposition it on the market.
Trei increases development pipeline
Trei Real Estate presented its financials for 2022: In spite of the interest rate reversal and the various crises, Trei successfully continued to pursue its business activities and to expand them significantly. The property development pipeline grew from 1.7 billion euros at year-end 2021 to 2.0 billion euros by 31 December 2022 – implying an 18 percent growth. The total breaks down into 1.8 billion euros in residential property and 200 million euros in retail property developments.
Pepijn Morshuis, the CEO of Trei Real Estate, commented on the year-end result: “2022 was defined by growing construction costs and rising levels of interest in all of the markets in which we are active. Development activities in general experienced a significant decline – especially as far as the launching of new projects goes. In 2022, we decided to streamline our portfolio and focus more strongly on our core competencies. As a result, we disposed of seven German retail properties in September and, in early 2023, of our entire Portugal portfolio, which consisted of 49 retail properties. The sale of our Czech and Slovakian portfolio is also foreseen for 2023. Going forward, we will concentrate on the development activities in Germany, Poland and the United States.”
Sonae Sierra to manage Prishtina Mall
Sonae Sierra will be responsible for managing Prishtina Mall, the largest shopping centre in Southeastern Europe. With a GLA of 115,000 sqm, Prishtina Mall is positioned as a regional centre intended to serve the surrounding area of the Balkans.
Sonae Sierra began collaborating with Prishtina Mall through consulting services in the areas of leasing and operations in March 2022, and shortly after, took over complete management of the project. Together with the local team, Sonae Sierra completed 100 leasing contracts in just eight months, allowing Prishtina Mall to open with an occupancy rate of 81 percent.
Cristina Santos, Executive Director of Property Management at Sonae Sierra, said: “Sonae Sierra’s intervention in Prishtina Mall is a success story, due to the size and speed of the results achieved for this asset.”
Prishtina Mall has a gross leasable area (GLA) of 115,000 sqm and is positioned as a regional centre, which will serve the entire surrounding area of the Balkans.
