News

Commercial Investment Property Projects
Offices
34 office buildings are already under construction to be ready during 2005 or 2006. 21 office buildings will be completed in 2005 and 13 during 2006. Kardan from Israel intends to build 26,000 square meters of A class offices, project value of €50m . America House under construction is well located at Piata Victoriei now a focus of Bucharest's office developments. The Israelis have also developed Europa House, which, on completion was sold to the Austrian property fund Europolis.

National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) intends to place €15m in Romania and 150 million in the area. In this regard, it recently launched an investment fund for CEEE to be called Watani Central European Real Estate Fund. The assets targeted by the fund include A class offices, commercial areas and logistics to be let to international companies.

The Belgium company Liebrecht & Wood is currently negotiating several important projects. They will enter the office market in Bucharest with a 20,000 square meters building, an investment estimated at €20m-22m . "The land is fully owned by Liebrecht & Wood, and the building and development authorisations are in progress. The new Liebrecht & Wood project will be composed of four buildings with a surface of circa 5,000 square meters each, connected to one another. It will have an excellent location and whoever will come to Bucharest would not miss it, declared Johan Rogiers, managing director with the company.

Warehousing
Liebrecht & Wood will also develop a warehouse project, called the Bucharest Logistic Centre located in NW Bucharest on the ring road. For a first development phase, Liebrecht & Wood is negotiating the rental of the site with a potential client.

The third Liebrecht & Wood project in Romania refers to the Bucharest Industrial Park, located in the Eastern Bucharest close to the Bucuresti-Pitesti motorway. Liebrecht & Wood also holds a 25 hectares land, but they did not decide on its destination yet.

Autoker Holding, one of the most important real estate and logistics companies in Hungary is indenting to enter the Romanian market by building office buildings in a first phase. "Although we continue with the projects in Budapest, we started to look for investment opportunities in Romania, Poland Czech Republic and Ukraine as well.

As it is risky to enter into residential projects on new markets, we will probably start with investments in office buildings:, declared Ehud Amir, the company president, quoted by Budapest Business Journal.

Business Opportunities and Development Projects
The Israeli investment fund Africa Israel Investment bought a 121,000 square meters plot last month for which it paid €9m . Here they intend to build a residential complex in Bucharest.
Four international companies will jointly develop the largest logistics centre in Romania, Cefin Logistic Parc, which will be spread on 30 hectares in close to Bucharest, next to the Bucuresti-Pitesti motorway.

The development of the project estimated at €75m will be the responsibility of the Romanian division of the Italian group Cefin specialising in real estate investment ad the Austrian Europolis will provide the funding via a loan contracted from HVB Bank Romania. The building of Cefin Logistic Park will include several phases for the next three years.
The centre will have 13 hectares and it will include distinct units of at least 2,500 square meters each.

European Future Group, UK, is targeting eight potential investments totaling €150m . But, everything is at the intention level.

The American Apollo Real Estate division, last year's leader in terms of CEEE investment, plans to invest up to €150m in Romania.

11 new shopping centres will be built in Bucharest
The real estate companies confront a great number of retail projects, but 11 projects are a certainty for Bucharest. There will be three new hypermarkets, a Cora in Drumul Taberei, a Kaufrand in Colentina and a Carrefour in Baneasa.

5 new malls will be built: City Mall on Sos. Oltenitei, Concorde Mall in Rahova, Esplanada oposite the Pasajul Marasesti, Sun Plaza at the crossing between Vacaresti and Oltenitei, Metropola at Eroilor. They are added three shopping parks two in Baneasa and one in Otopeni.

Major Projects
The Esplanada project includes the development under a Public-Private-Partnership, in the central Bucharest, of a multifunctional complex with several malls, office buildings, residential buildings and 10-20 floors hotels, the development of a pedestrian area and commercial spaces on circa 10 hectares in central Bucharest. The total investment for this project to start soon will exceed €800m.

Projects in negotiation Other projects represent an intention. The real estate company Meinl European Land, registered in the UK, has planned investments of €100m in Romania, declared Nadine Gilles, representative of the company.

"We are currently negotiating to purchase several retail projects in Romania with a value exceeding €100m". They mainly target projects in the commercial sector and potentially industrial developments. Other investments of the company in Romania are targeting the extension of the Military shopping centre. "The project could be extended on approximately 150,000 square meters. The extension will be done depending on the demand, step by step, in the following years". The Militari shopping centre, which Meinl bought last year from Liebrecht & Wood for €20m, is the first investment of the company in Romania.
Jurnalul - 6 APRIL 2005