Coffee with Craig Show – daily CRE news covering the CEE region with Craig Smith, Founder and Publisher of EuropaProperty.com and Winston Norman, Editor and Chief of EuropaProperty.com.
Czech retail parks growing in popularity
Last year witnessed the completion of more than 62,000 sqm of shopping space in 17 retail parks – new, renovated or expanded. The total space in the retail parks has increased to 1.2 million sqm. This is the second-largest increase in the last 10 years. according to Cushman & Wakefield’s analysis of the Czech retail park market data
Given the growing interest in this business concept from landlords, tenants and investors, the percentage of the total volume can be expected to grow in the coming years. Jan Čížek, Head of Retail Warehousing, Cushman & Wakefield explains: ”Retail parks continue to enjoy great interest from shoppers, which supports their further development.”
Developers are preparing more new retail parks for the future: 87,200 sqm of their space is currently under construction, and an additional 380,000 sqm is in various stages of preparation. If all planned projects are completed as planned, the area of retail parks could increase by more than 400,000 sqm by 2025.
Forte Partners gets LEED certification for U•Center 2
Romanian developer Forte Partners has obtained the LEED v4 Platinum certification for its U•Center 2 office building based in Bucharest. The building got a score of 88 under the certification process that was coordinated by BuildGreen.
“Carbon reduction, smart water use and reuse, waste management, green transportation, biodiversity, health and wellness are the pillars of our sustainability vision,” said Stephen Burke, Director of Construction at Forte Partners.
The developer said that U•Center 2 has achieved the status of a carbon-neutral building in operation (S&C). The project has a leasable area of 35,000 sqm and was completed in September 2023. The first phase of the office complex was sold to Pavăl Holding at the end of 2022.
TitanX Engine Cooling opens new factory at CTPark Opole
CTP has officially opened the new TitanX Engine Cooling factory at CTPark Opole in Poland. TitanX, the global supplier of cooling systems for trucks, has now launched its production operations in the building. In doing so, TitanX has increased the previously occupied space by 18,320 sqm, consolidating all engineering processes in a single investment, which was built to suit CTP.
Cedric Huslin, CEO of TitanX, says: “CTPark Opole is located in a strategic location, offering easy access to the A4 motorway and other key arteries leading to the Czech Republic and Germany. The fact that the investment is located in the automotive industrial cluster is of great business value to us.”
Bogi Gabrovic, Deputy Country Head at CTP Poland, says: “In such a demanding industry as the broader automotive sector, a safe and sustainable development space is a very big asset.”
The CTPark Opole complex will ultimately consist of a complex of four buildings, providing a total of more than 80,000 sqm of leasable space. It has been BREEAM certified and offers the possibility of installing photovoltaic systems on the roofs, as well as having a BMS system.
