Heitman partners up
And all these investments have taken the form of joint ventures.
The first to be revealed was that with Israeli residential developers Engel General Developers, in which both parties would share the cost of developing and then selling more than 5,000 housing units on a total of seven sites across Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. This agreement represented Heitman's first ever move into the region's housing market, though it has been active in acquiring residential projects in the USA for the last ten years.
"The residential market is one we're very interested in," says Christopher Merrill, Managing Director of the company's International Private Equity Group. "We invest in projects which have either been stabilized or where we can begin construction, so we're looking to co-operate with companies which have a number of sites and have gone through the development process, but also have a strategy. Engel, for instance, has the land and the permission to build over 5,000 units. That didn't happen overnight."
The next news concerned the Heads of Terms, which were signed between Heitman and Plaza Centers Europe, to set up a joint venture, (this time 90/10 in the American investor's favor) which would eventually lead to the large scale expansion of Plaza Center's European network of retail projects, (see related article on page one). This information was not, however, released by Heitman. Christopher Merrill claims that the two parties, "are a long way off from a deal" and that the news was put out, "before we would normally put out a press release". His angle on the potential investment is that if Heitman do embark on it, it will be, "because we are very interested in the Hungarian retail market," which is a 'mixed bag' of hypermarket-anchored and entertainment focused schemes.
What has been finalized, however, is Heitman's joint venture with New York-based developer Polimeni International, which will launch a chain of hypermarket-anchored retail centers across Poland, in mainly secondary markets, such as Kalisz, Głogow and Gniezno. The centers will be anything from 19,510 to 33,460 square meters in size, and construction on them will begin soon this year and will be completed in mid-2006. Heitman already owns thirteen such shopping centers in Poland and this venture will increase the number to twenty-three.
"We very much like this business," says Merrill of hypermarket-anchored centers, whose fortunes are fading somewhat in the larger cities. But for Merrill the high incidence of towns in Poland where there are more than 100,000 people means that, "there is a lot of product to focus on," and it would seem, develop.
"Heitman are almost like an opportunity investor," says Dorota Latkowska, Knight Frank Nieruchomości's Investment expert. "They are quite quick when making transactions." She suggests that the recent spate of joint ventures might be because the investor "doesn't like to close itself off: they outsource and take advantage of people on the ground."
The joint venture approach, however so manifest in Heitman's dealings of late, isn't necessarily the shape of things to come: "We will do joint ventures and we will do outright acquisitions," says Christopher Merrill but, "Where we can partner up with strong groups that have demonstrated a track record, we're more than happy to do this."
The first to be revealed was that with Israeli residential developers Engel General Developers, in which both parties would share the cost of developing and then selling more than 5,000 housing units on a total of seven sites across Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. This agreement represented Heitman's first ever move into the region's housing market, though it has been active in acquiring residential projects in the USA for the last ten years.
"The residential market is one we're very interested in," says Christopher Merrill, Managing Director of the company's International Private Equity Group. "We invest in projects which have either been stabilized or where we can begin construction, so we're looking to co-operate with companies which have a number of sites and have gone through the development process, but also have a strategy. Engel, for instance, has the land and the permission to build over 5,000 units. That didn't happen overnight."
The next news concerned the Heads of Terms, which were signed between Heitman and Plaza Centers Europe, to set up a joint venture, (this time 90/10 in the American investor's favor) which would eventually lead to the large scale expansion of Plaza Center's European network of retail projects, (see related article on page one). This information was not, however, released by Heitman. Christopher Merrill claims that the two parties, "are a long way off from a deal" and that the news was put out, "before we would normally put out a press release". His angle on the potential investment is that if Heitman do embark on it, it will be, "because we are very interested in the Hungarian retail market," which is a 'mixed bag' of hypermarket-anchored and entertainment focused schemes.
What has been finalized, however, is Heitman's joint venture with New York-based developer Polimeni International, which will launch a chain of hypermarket-anchored retail centers across Poland, in mainly secondary markets, such as Kalisz, Głogow and Gniezno. The centers will be anything from 19,510 to 33,460 square meters in size, and construction on them will begin soon this year and will be completed in mid-2006. Heitman already owns thirteen such shopping centers in Poland and this venture will increase the number to twenty-three.
"We very much like this business," says Merrill of hypermarket-anchored centers, whose fortunes are fading somewhat in the larger cities. But for Merrill the high incidence of towns in Poland where there are more than 100,000 people means that, "there is a lot of product to focus on," and it would seem, develop.
"Heitman are almost like an opportunity investor," says Dorota Latkowska, Knight Frank Nieruchomości's Investment expert. "They are quite quick when making transactions." She suggests that the recent spate of joint ventures might be because the investor "doesn't like to close itself off: they outsource and take advantage of people on the ground."
The joint venture approach, however so manifest in Heitman's dealings of late, isn't necessarily the shape of things to come: "We will do joint ventures and we will do outright acquisitions," says Christopher Merrill but, "Where we can partner up with strong groups that have demonstrated a track record, we're more than happy to do this."
