OVERHAUL

Orco Property Group has closed the acquisition on a new 34,000-square-meter (366,000-square-feet) property in Prague 7. The building, located at Bubenská 1, is currently the IT headquarters of Česká spořitelna. Orco announced that it plans to start overhauling the building in 2008 into office and retail space.

UPDATE

Rental growth in the European retail market has remained solid, according to Cushman & Wakefield's European Retail Review. Overall, the market's rental growth has seen a 3.5 percent jump from January to June. The retail warehouse market has seen the biggest surge in its rental growth. Taking advantage of lower rents and space flexibility, many businesses, particularly in France and Belgium, are relocating to retail parks.

FORECAST

Demand for office space will increase by the end of the year, predicts the Prague Research Forum. In addition, the office vacancy rate is expected to remain at the current level or slightly decrease. The office vacancy rate has seen a decline of more than 2 percent in recent months, which was mainly due to the lack of new office stock coming into the market. Rents have remained stable.

DEVELOPMENT

BB Centrum, a mixed-use, city district in Prague 4, is celebrating its 10th anniversary. About 50 percent of BB Centrum has already been developed, including shops, services, restaurants, apartments and office space. Construction of Brumlovka, with a wellness & fitness club, restaurants, a post office, a hairdresser and a number of other services, is nearing completion. The BB Centrum layout also includes two parks and a community center with a school and lecture halls.

CONSTRUCTION

The transformation of the former industrial part of Nové Vysočany has started. Plans include housing units, office space and a retail center. The first phase of the project should be completed by this spring, with the second phase following six months later. Completion of the first stage of the project is planned for spring 2007, the second stage approximately six months later. Updates on the construction can be found at www.parkrokytka.cz.

SOLD

Ballymore sold 10 of the 15 properties at its Statenický Mlýn housing development in Prague Oct. 19. The Statenický Mlýn development, scheduled to be fully completed by the end of next year, consists of 37 apartments, 21 town houses and 32 villas. There is also a private gym along with a number of other retail and commercial facilities, including a lakeside restaurant, florist, dry cleaner, patisserie, café, beauty spa and kindergarten located within the town square. The tree-lined square will act as the central focus of the development.

MALL

The ECM Group has announced plans to further expand its reach in Europe by undertaking a large-scale retail project in the Russian city of Ryazan. The Ryazan Shopping Mall project will be the only shopping center of its kind in the area and will provide services to more than 800,000 residents. This is one of the largest investment projects to take place in this region of Russia.

PROJECT

Hochtief Development has a new project in the works. Called Cargoport, it will be located in Dobrovíz. The advantage of the project is its proximity to Prague Ruzyně airport. The premises will also have new railroad spur connected to a railway line. The first phase of the project is scheduled to be complete in 2008.

RANKING

MARKET

The property investment market in Central and Eastern Europe shows signs of being another record-breaking year in 2006, according to CB Richard Ellis. Transaction activity in the first half of 2006 in the more established markets — Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russia and Slovakia — reached 3.9 billion euros ($5 billion/110 billion Kč). This surpasses the total investment volume witnessed during the same period in 2005, accounting for 21 percent of the total investment in the region since 1998.

AWARD

Euromoney has named CB Richard Ellis the overall winner in its 2006 Global Real Estate Awards. CB Richard Ellis won a total of 48 awards from the global financial publication, including the award for top global advisory firm. "Our continuing success in the Euromoney awards is a testament to the quality of service we are providing clients around the world," said Brett White, CB Richard Ellis' president and chief executive officer.

LAUNCH

The Central & Eastern European Real Estate Quality Awards held a kick-off party in Prague Nov. 6 to get folks excited about the annual awards and dinner gala to be held at the InterContinental Warsaw Hotel in Poland Feb. 20. Organizers of the event said it seemed "natural" to start things off in Prague because a number of the Quality Awards have gone to projects and companies in Prague over the past few years.

APPOINTED

Jean-François Laporte has been appointed an analyst for CB Richard Ellis Hotels. Laporte has worked in the hotel industry for eight years and was previously employed by Accor in the UK. Janina Pätoprstá has been appointed a junior agent in the CB Richard Ellis Prague office. Pätoprstá joined CB Richard Ellis after graduating at University of Economics in Bratislava, specializing in management and corporate finance.