Coffee with Craig Show – daily CRE news covering the CEE region, Tuesday, October 24, with Winston Norman, Editor and Chief of EuropaProperty.com.
Office building in Warsaw sold for PRS redevelopment
Octava has sold the Obrzeżna Center office building in Warsaw to a Polish investor. The price has not been disclosed. The new owner is a Polish investor, who purchased the property with a further redevelopment plan and changed its function into a PRS unit.
Obrzeżna Center offers ca. 10,000 sqm of total space, spread on 6 floors above ground. There are also both ground and underground parking spaces available to tenants.
“Older office buildings often differ significantly in terms of standards from modern and energy-efficient class-A office buildings. In this respect, converting them to a residential function may be more profitable than continuing to maintain increasingly less attractive and difficult-to-lease office space”, comments Bartłomiej Krzyżak, Senior Director of Investment at Avison Young.
Avison Young jointly with Savills represented the seller. Penteris provided legal advice for the seller throughout the process.
Echo Investment starts construction of Swobodna SPOT in Wrocław
Swobodna SPOT is a new project by Echo Investment at 60 Swobodna Street in Wrocław. There will be a total of 41,600 sqm of leasable space in the project located in the city’s business centre. Two office buildings and a green urban walkway connecting them were designed by architects from Kuryłowicz & Associates.
The 11-storey building of 16,000 sqm located at the intersection of Swobodna and Gwiaździsta Streets will be built first. It is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2025. The second building, which will deliver a further 25,600 sqm of space to the market, is planned for the third quarter of 2026.
“At Echo Investment we strongly believe in the business potential of Wrocław. The capital of Lower Silesia effectively attracts investors, and the city’s rich educational, entertainment and cultural offers are assets that benefit both employers and employees”, said Katarzyna Kubicka, Regional Director at Echo Investment.
Panattoni gets financing for 50,000 sqm development near Gdańsk
Panattoni has been awarded a loan of over €32 million from mBank to develop the first building of Panattoni Park Tricity East V. Regesta is to operate its largest logistics centre in Poland from the centre.
“Our new project will take advantage of the greatest benefits of the Tricity region. It will be close to one of the largest ports on the Baltic as well as the urban area’s huge population,” stated Karina Trojańska, the Chief Financing and Operating Officer at Panattoni.
The development of the centre has just begun but already 36,000 sqm has been leased by Regesta, which will start operations from the centre in the first quarter of 2024. This will be the largest centre in the company’s Polish portfolio and its location will enable it to work with the port, to handle containers at the Baltic Hub and the BCT as well as to expand the range of services it offers for organising shipping by sea.
Lux Med to join Lakeside in Warsaw as main tenant
Lux Med Group, a provider of private healthcare services market in Poland, has leased more than 13,000 sqm of office space in Atenor’s Lakeside property. Occupying more than half of the building’s space, Lux Med has therefore become Lakeside’s biggest tenant, whereas the deal is the largest single office transaction of the Warsaw office market so far in 2023. The new Lux Med office will open in the second half of 2024.
“We are proud that we can already boast certification at the highest level and that this is appreciated by our tenants, for whom green standards are equally important”, says Maciej Krenek Board Member, Atenor Poland.
Lakeside is an office building of approximately 23,850 sqm, scheduled to open in Q4 2023. It has already been awarded a BREEAM certificate at the highest level, an Outstanding, and a WELL certificate at the Gold level during the construction phase.
