Tucked away in a villa on a quiet, tree-shaded street in Prague 6, the Angermann Internationale Immobilien Consultants offices have the atmosphere of a stately family dwelling rather than a busy real estate consulting firm. This isn't surprising, given its small staff size, which at any given time ranges from five to seven people.

And appearances can be deceptive. There is nothing small about most of the projects that Angermann has taken on since entering the Czech real estate market in 1992. Take, for instance, the Dejvice Center, on which Angermann started working as exclusive consultant five years ago. The massive 4.5 billion Kč ($192.3 million), 100,000-square-meter (1 million square feet) project is to be built on Vítězné náměstí in Prague 6, where, along with office and retail space, it will encompass two university campuses.

"What makes the Dejvice Center project unique is that it's in such a highly visible place," says Angermann managing director Miroslav Najman. He notes that Vítězné náměstí has a bigger diameter than the roundabout that circumscribes the L'Arc de Triomphe in Paris. "Until the expansion of the A line metro, the place will be on the last subway stop. It's an ideal location," adds Najman, who served as the deputy chairman on the board of the developer's company, also called Dejvice Center.

Since its inception, the project has gone through numerous transformations. This year, moreover, it switched hands, passing from Siemens to Sekyra Group. As a result, the construction date has been postponed repeatedly. If all goes according to plan, the center should finally open in 2009.

"The project wasn't being held up because of the financing," Najaman says. "All the institutions have come together putting forth a lot of demands, since this is to be one of the last projects on a green space close to the center of Prague." The high visibility of the project warrants careful consideration of the final design, according to Najman. "Everyone wants this to be a project of the future. It can't be trite or ugly."

In its final version, the Dejvice Center should have some 30,000 square meters of retail space, 40,000 square meters of office space and around 17,000 square meters intended for the Czech Technical University and the School of Chemical Technology. The schools own most of the property, while the rest of the land belongs to the city. After a brief hiatus, Angermann is set to start working on the Dejvice Center project again in January 2006.

A winning strategy

The 13-year upward trajectory of Angermann is a perfect example of a small company finding its niche in the real estate market and sticking to it. Since first entering the Czech market, the company has focused almost exclusively on high-end real estate. And Najman doesn't plan on changing this strategy any time soon. "Basically, we just want to remain in the strong position where we are right now," he says. "We have a specialized clientele, and this hasn't changed over the years. We're not trying to take over the market." And while many other developers these days tend to look further afield for future projects, Angermann will stay firmly grounded in Prague, says Najman. That's where the clients are.

Najman does, however, expect Angermann's clientele to continue growing. "My experience is that the demand remains strong," he says. According to an Aug. 13 report in the German paper Frankfurter Allgemeine, Najman notes, 90 billion euros ($112.5 billion/2,626 billion Kč) will be invested in Europe next year. Of that, 60 billion euros are expected to be invested in Eastern European countries, with a sizable chunk going to the Czech Republic.

"With the influx of managers from abroad, demand for high-quality housing is constantly rising. People don't have a problem paying prices that range from 65,000 to 100,000 Kč per square meter," says Najman. He is quick to point out that 90 percent of these clients are non-Czech, although an increasing number of locals are also beginning to look for upscale housing. According to Najman, Czechs were for a long time mostly interested in buying family houses outside of Prague. Now that the children of these suburbanites are growing older, Najman speculates, the parents are beginning to look back toward Prague for quality housing.

Of those upscale residential projects, Najman says that his favorite so far is Villa Bianca, a luxury residential complex in a building created by the Czech architect Jan Kotěra in 1910 and 1911. "We worked on that project for six years. We've become friends with the original owners and people involved in it," he says, adding, "Every project is different. There is always something new to work on."