SKANSKA TO MOVE INTO OPATOV
Sekyra Group Real Estate has signed a long-term contract to lease 15,000 sqm of office space to Skanska in its newly finished project Opatov Park I. The contractor will finally be able to leave its Socialist-era headquarters, sold last year for CZK 750m (€29.6m), and move all its 700 employees to the new office center near the Opatov metro station in Prague 11.
The new six-storey building, designed by architect Martin Kotík’s Omicron–K studio, will serve as Skanska’s new headquarters for at least the next decade. The building currently stands alone, having been built at a cost of CZK 1bn (€36m), but it’s intended as just the first phase of a far more extensive mixed-use scheme called Opatovský Bulvár. The project will consist of about 45,000 sqm of new flats and offices in an area known as South Town, while the next building, Opatov Park II, will offer 16,000 sqm of office space and another 6,000 sqm of shops and services.
“Sekyra Group is counting on attracting Skanska subcontractors to rent space in the second phase of Opatov Park. The building is now in the planning stages and should be finished in no more than in five years,” says Radek Polák, Sekyra PR manager. Residential space is also in the works, but the developer will first have to purchase additional land.
ECHO DEMANDS TO BE STRUCK FROM ALTMAN INDEX
Echo Investment has issued a statement in which it calls on Kolaja & Partners, publisher of the Altman Index, to remove its name from the list of rated companies. Piotr Gromniak, president of the board at Echo, said the methodology used in the index was disadvantageous for listed property companies and distorted their financial viability and prospects for growth.
“The index, which you are using, should only be used in relation to production companies, and the company Echo Investment S.A. does not rank among them,” said Gromniak in a statement. “Echo Investment gains the majority of its income thanks to revaluation of its real property portfolio and the sale of apartments, which is dependent on the adopted investment cycle. Both liquidity ratios and liability ratios of Echo Capital Group remain on safe levels.” He warned that putting the company on the index in the future would risk causing further damage to the company’s reputation and lead to pointless confusion and uncertainty.
REMAX ON THE ROPES?
Remax Magyarország, the Hungarian branch of the American real estate broker, may be on the verge of collapse.
Tamás Földes, whose company T&T Productions was contracted to introduce the brand when it entered Hungary in 2006, says he plans to launch bankruptcy proceedings against Remax if the company doesn’t pay its bills. And T&T is reportedly not the only company looking for past-due payments.
Owners Bence Keszthelyi and Balázs Posta signed three major media contracts with Földes in 2007, and Földes says he’s still owed HUF 40m (about €129,800) for a six-month series of high-profile radio and newspaper spots. Földes says during the campaign, Remax had no problem paying its bills, but once the campaign was over, the money stopped coming.
“They don’t answer the phones, and our lawyers have tried to arrange a meeting with their lawyers but they’ve canceled twice,” says Földes. He had hoped that recent media exposure about the debts would spur Remax into working out some sort of deal to protect its brand image, but so far there’s been no response.
Remax has more than 50 franchise offices across Hungary. Representatives from the agency could not be contacted for comment.
CPDP TAKES OVER CENTRAL PARK PRAHA
Beset by substantial cost overruns, construction work stopped on Central Park Praha in Prague 3’s Žižkov last September. In order to gain access to new funding for the residential project, investor CPDP has been forced by financing bank UniCredit to inject new equity into the scheme. Tomáš Hlaváč, CPDP’s managing director, has agreed to the conditions, but at the same time has taken over for Milan Ganik, the former chief executive of the project’s special purpose vehicle. Ganik is now chairman of the company’s supervisory board but has no executive powers.
Hlaváč says the project went over budget to the tune of “hundreds of millions of crowns.” CPDP originally took on the project in 2007, when it acquired a 20 percent share in the project company CPP Lux, a joint venture in which an 80 percent stake had been owned by the Dutch company Jaccor. After this recent injection of equity, CPDP now has control of the company. Roughly 200 of the 520 units have been completed, with the rest due for delivery by the autumn. More than 300 have been sold.
Hlaváč believes the current pricing of CZK 100,000 per sqm (€3,600) is sustainable. “In 2010 we will be the only one to be able to offer completed flats in Prague 1, 2 or 3,” he says. “Also, the fear of inflation will make people start investing in flats again. For individuals, it’s the traditional way of investing money to protect against inflation.”
YAREAL REVIVING THE ‘50S
Yareal Polska has received a construction permit for the revitalization of a 1950s office building, located on Mokotowska Street in downtown Warsaw. The French developer aims to turn the neglected building, marketed under the name of Mokotowska Square, into class A office and retail space for luxury brands.
Once completed, it will offer 8,500 sqm of offices, as well as 1,100 sqm of retail and services on the ground floor and 50 parking spaces. Plans call for a total overhaul of the building to match modern requirements for office and retail tenants and the recreation of the original 1950s facade.
According to Yareal, work on the building – purchased by the developer three years ago – will begin this year, while completion is set for the first quarter of 2011. Yareal refused to reveal the amount of money needed to carry out the project.
GHELAMCO STRICTER THAN CONSERVATION OFFICE
Belgian developer Ghelamco, best known for its office projects, is now entering relatively unknown territory. The developer plans to begin renovating two historic buildings it bought in 2006, boosting property values by turning them into luxury apartment houses.
In a city that was nearly razed during the Second World War, such buildings are rare, but most developers would agree it’s not an easy business trying to bring such properties back to their prime with the Warsaw Conservation Office scrutinizing every move.
The office recently vetoed Ghelamco’s plan to restore one of the original 1920s facades, saying that modernist changes made to the building in 1930 should be recreated instead.
“[The changes in question] illustrate the development of architecture in the 1930s,” the office said in a statement. Stunned by the ruling, Ghelamco is bizarrely now putting on its purist hat, something usually worn by the conservation office. The company is now readying an appeal against the ruling. “We want to bring the building back to its original state,” says Matylda King, head of residential development.