Pol Nordic Group tries to get back on track with new owners
With the sale of developer Pol Nordic Group to U.S.-based investors in July, the company is now hoping to move ahead on projects that were hampered by a lack of capital.
Previously owned by Norwegian investors, Pol Nordic Group's attempts to raise capital in Norway were stalled by the Russian crisis and low world oil prices in 1998. This forced the company to delay its Nordic Park office development in Warsaw and sell its Sadyba Best Mall retail project, which is under construction in the capital.
As a result, the Norwegian shareholders sold the whole company for an undisclosed amount to U.S.-based Equity Global Properties, Pol Nordic Group said in a press release.
Equity Global Properties, which is a joint venture between U.S. companies Equity International Properties and Global International Investment, has been looking to invest in the real estate market here for a year and concluded talks with Pol Nordic Group over a three-month period, said Michael Alter, the new boss of Pol Nordic Group and a representative of Equity Global Properties. "They were a motivated seller, we were a motivated buyer," said Alter, who would not reveal the acquisition price.
Equity Global Properties decided to buy the entire Pol Nordic Group rather than its Nordic Park office project "to get a platform out of which we can operate," added Alter, who will be permanently based in New York with Pol Nordic Group's day-to-day operations being handled by current management.
Pol Nordic Group, which will continue to operate under this name, has only completed one project to date - Centrum Handlowe Torunska. This $1.6 million project features 2,500 square meters of retail space. The stalled Nordic Park office building in the Powisle district, which was expected to cost $50 million, will have 8,825 square meters of office space and is due to open this December. The company also owns five hectares of land slated for retail development in Krakow.
To boost the Nordic Park project, Pol Nordic Group has decided that it will pay commissions to any real estate agent who can bring tenants into the building. Until now, Healey & Baker was the sole agent for the building. It will continue to be lead agent for the project, but will face competition from other agents. The Pol Nordic building carries an asking price of $27 per square meter a month, Alter said.
Housing scheme approved
The government will spend zl. 27.4 billion ($6.9 billion) by 2003 to support housing development, according to a Housing and Urban Development Office program approved in July.
Average annual spending of zl. 5.5 billion ($1.38 billion) will result in construction of 650,000 apartments and the renovation of 150,000 apartments in five years, according to program forecasts.
If successful, the program could result in a significant increase in the number of apartments being built. In 1998, 80,594 apartments were developed around the country, according to figures from the Housing and Urban Development Office.
The program was accepted by the government in July and will start next year, said Teresa Jakutowicz, head of public relations for the housing office. The program calls for subsidies for municipalities and cooperatives developing rental apartments as well for private customers willing to purchase newly developed apartments.
The support for private apartment buyers provides that the state will finance up to 50% of a bank loan taken by the customer to buy a newly developed apartment. The support, however, will only target customers who are not able to purchase an apartment without government assistance. Only families below certain income levels (in 2000 the level is zl. 55,000 in annual income) will receive support to purchase an apartment is not larger than 50 square meters.
The housing office believes that 570,000 customers will benefit from the program, which will replace a scheme initiated in 1997 that gave tax reliefs for apartment buyers and those renovating residences.
Under this scheme, buyers can deduct 19% of the cost of purchasing or renovating an apartment. The Finance Ministry said that 597,739 taxpayers benefited from the reliefs in 1997, while data for 1998 will not be available until August.
Klif gets Infor
Managers of the Klif office building in Warsaw's Wola district have signed pre-leased deals with two tenants for more than 90% of the building, three months ahead of its planned October completion date.
Klif, located next to the shopping mall by the same name, signed a 10-year contract with publishing house Infor, which will take 6,000 square meter in 10 of the buildings 13 stories. This represents 77% of Kilf's total 7,800 square meters of office space, said Healey & Baker, the agent representing Klif.
The contract with Infor, which publishes titles such as Prawo i Gospodarka, Gazeta Prawna and is a shareholder in Tok FM radio, is the largest in 1999 for Healey & Baker. It is also one of the largest to be signed so far this year in Warsaw. In the first half of the year, office tenants leased only 40,000 square meters of space, according to estimates from Henry Butcher real estate agency. (See WBJ, July 5-11, 1999.)
Klif, which was developed by the Norwegian-owned Polinvest, also signed a five-year deal with Roche Polska, a Swiss laboratory diagnostics company. The contract was for 1,200 square meters over two stories in the building. Now only one floor, or 650 square meters, is available to let at an asking price of $27 per square meter plus a $5 per meter service charge and $3.30 per meter common space charge.
Polinvest said it took only four months of marketing to lease the space in the building. "We managed to finalize it pretty quickly," said Jacek Wesolowski, director general of Polinvest.
Wesolowski said a combination of an attractive price and a good western location easily accessible to cars made the building successful. He would not comment on the building's square meter price, saying only that it was never intended to be class A space. "It's typical class B office space," Wesolowski said.
Previously owned by Norwegian investors, Pol Nordic Group's attempts to raise capital in Norway were stalled by the Russian crisis and low world oil prices in 1998. This forced the company to delay its Nordic Park office development in Warsaw and sell its Sadyba Best Mall retail project, which is under construction in the capital.
As a result, the Norwegian shareholders sold the whole company for an undisclosed amount to U.S.-based Equity Global Properties, Pol Nordic Group said in a press release.
Equity Global Properties, which is a joint venture between U.S. companies Equity International Properties and Global International Investment, has been looking to invest in the real estate market here for a year and concluded talks with Pol Nordic Group over a three-month period, said Michael Alter, the new boss of Pol Nordic Group and a representative of Equity Global Properties. "They were a motivated seller, we were a motivated buyer," said Alter, who would not reveal the acquisition price.
Equity Global Properties decided to buy the entire Pol Nordic Group rather than its Nordic Park office project "to get a platform out of which we can operate," added Alter, who will be permanently based in New York with Pol Nordic Group's day-to-day operations being handled by current management.
Pol Nordic Group, which will continue to operate under this name, has only completed one project to date - Centrum Handlowe Torunska. This $1.6 million project features 2,500 square meters of retail space. The stalled Nordic Park office building in the Powisle district, which was expected to cost $50 million, will have 8,825 square meters of office space and is due to open this December. The company also owns five hectares of land slated for retail development in Krakow.
To boost the Nordic Park project, Pol Nordic Group has decided that it will pay commissions to any real estate agent who can bring tenants into the building. Until now, Healey & Baker was the sole agent for the building. It will continue to be lead agent for the project, but will face competition from other agents. The Pol Nordic building carries an asking price of $27 per square meter a month, Alter said.
Housing scheme approved
The government will spend zl. 27.4 billion ($6.9 billion) by 2003 to support housing development, according to a Housing and Urban Development Office program approved in July.
Average annual spending of zl. 5.5 billion ($1.38 billion) will result in construction of 650,000 apartments and the renovation of 150,000 apartments in five years, according to program forecasts.
If successful, the program could result in a significant increase in the number of apartments being built. In 1998, 80,594 apartments were developed around the country, according to figures from the Housing and Urban Development Office.
The program was accepted by the government in July and will start next year, said Teresa Jakutowicz, head of public relations for the housing office. The program calls for subsidies for municipalities and cooperatives developing rental apartments as well for private customers willing to purchase newly developed apartments.
The support for private apartment buyers provides that the state will finance up to 50% of a bank loan taken by the customer to buy a newly developed apartment. The support, however, will only target customers who are not able to purchase an apartment without government assistance. Only families below certain income levels (in 2000 the level is zl. 55,000 in annual income) will receive support to purchase an apartment is not larger than 50 square meters.
The housing office believes that 570,000 customers will benefit from the program, which will replace a scheme initiated in 1997 that gave tax reliefs for apartment buyers and those renovating residences.
Under this scheme, buyers can deduct 19% of the cost of purchasing or renovating an apartment. The Finance Ministry said that 597,739 taxpayers benefited from the reliefs in 1997, while data for 1998 will not be available until August.
Klif gets Infor
Managers of the Klif office building in Warsaw's Wola district have signed pre-leased deals with two tenants for more than 90% of the building, three months ahead of its planned October completion date.
Klif, located next to the shopping mall by the same name, signed a 10-year contract with publishing house Infor, which will take 6,000 square meter in 10 of the buildings 13 stories. This represents 77% of Kilf's total 7,800 square meters of office space, said Healey & Baker, the agent representing Klif.
The contract with Infor, which publishes titles such as Prawo i Gospodarka, Gazeta Prawna and is a shareholder in Tok FM radio, is the largest in 1999 for Healey & Baker. It is also one of the largest to be signed so far this year in Warsaw. In the first half of the year, office tenants leased only 40,000 square meters of space, according to estimates from Henry Butcher real estate agency. (See WBJ, July 5-11, 1999.)
Klif, which was developed by the Norwegian-owned Polinvest, also signed a five-year deal with Roche Polska, a Swiss laboratory diagnostics company. The contract was for 1,200 square meters over two stories in the building. Now only one floor, or 650 square meters, is available to let at an asking price of $27 per square meter plus a $5 per meter service charge and $3.30 per meter common space charge.
Polinvest said it took only four months of marketing to lease the space in the building. "We managed to finalize it pretty quickly," said Jacek Wesolowski, director general of Polinvest.
Wesolowski said a combination of an attractive price and a good western location easily accessible to cars made the building successful. He would not comment on the building's square meter price, saying only that it was never intended to be class A space. "It's typical class B office space," Wesolowski said.
