Engel owned and entitled the land for the projects, and the Heitman fund essentially bought a 50% interest in the projects. The estimated $300-million joint venture will develop the for-sale apartments, townhomes and apartments on seven sites in capital cities and secondary markets across the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. The first phases of the developments are scheduled to be completed by 2005/2006.

Chicago-based Heitman is one of the largest real estate investment managers in the US with approximately $11.5 billion in assets under management. Engel is a developer of residential and commercial properties. Heitman says Engel's previous three projects in Prague and Budapest were 98% sold out within "a very short time frame."

Although Heitman has been involved in Central Europe since 1995, the joint venture with Engel General Developers Ltd. is Heitman's first in the residential market in Central Europe, where Heitman says there is currently significant demand for new housing. In the US, Heitman has acquired 17,000 apartment units with a total value of $2.4 billion in the past decade.