CEE on show
The fourth edition of the international Rednet Property Group's CEPIF real-estate fair took place in Warsaw last week. Some 200 exhibitors, including developers such as Apsys Polska, Savills Poland, Orco, Salwator and TriGranit as well as real-estate consultants and agencies such as Cushman & Wakefield, Colliers, KPMG, King Sturge and Deloitte Audit gathered at the Expo XXI conference center on June 4 and 5. Representatives from city and regional governments across Central and Eastern Europe were also in attendance, promoting the advantages of cities such as Warsaw, Kraków, Łód, Opole, Szczecin, Bratislava, Odessa and Kaliningrad, to name a few.
A number of stands at CEPIF this year were particularly innovative in terms of design, such as Warsaw City Hall's two-storey Blikle café stand and Kaliningrad's massive stand dedicated to the revitilization project of the city center, featuring an impressive plexiglass model of what the city could look like in five years after dynamic development in office, housing and retail property.
Over the past three years, CEPIF has become the third-most important real-estate fair in Europe after MIPIM in Cannes and Expo Real in Munich. This year, some 3,670 visitors participated in the fair and related events, such as a series of conferences and cocktail get-togethers, which focused on specific issues and trends relating to property development, in addition to facilitating contacts between organizations.
Much to discuss
Among the most interesting topics raised at the CEPIF conferences and seminars this year was Poland and Ukraine's preparedness for the Euro 2012 championship. At "Road to Euro 2012," an expert panel was on hand to discuss issues regarding infrastructure, costs and timelines as well as answer questions from investors and journalists about opportunities related to equipping the two host countries with everything they need - high-grade stadiums, quality road, railway and air infrastructure, efficient access from one match in one city to the next in another, as well as hotels and alternative accomodations for all the fans in attendance. Other panels presented an array of development prospects and investment opportunities in the residential, commercial and industrial markets across Central and Eastern Europe, examining issues of regeneration, technology, design, sustainability and financing.
Investment Vision & Environments (INVI) announced the winners of its third annual Central European Architectural Academic Awards 2007 at CEPIF. INVI, a design and development services company dedicated to global sustainability, held the contest to recognize gifted architecture students and recent graduates of Universities across the CEE region. Young talents from all over CEE were invited to participate in CEPIF and the awards ceremony. A jury presided over by Guy Perry, INVI's president, and including top executives and academics from ARUP Poland, Bouygues Immobilier, design studio APA Wojciechowski, the Warsaw University of Technology, Belgrade University and Project Russia - a real-estate publication - selected Olga Prokopenko and Marina Oliferchuk from Ukraine for the top prize.
The CEPIF Gala Party held at Fabryka Trzciny on the evening of June 4 was said to be the biggest such occasion for the Polish property market, presenting Warsaw as a place for recreation and networking, as well as a platform for investment. There, CEPIF and the International Herald Tribune announced the winners of the CEE Best Developers Awards. For more information on the winners, see the accompanying article on this page.
