Concorde Capital, Colliers To Launch $100M Ukraine Real Estate Fund

KIEV, UKRAINE-Locally headquartered investment bank Concorde Capital is launching a real estate fund focused on the Ukraine in partnership with Colliers International. The Colliers-Concorde (Ukraine) Real Estate Fund has $100 million of equity and a targeted portfolio size of $200 million.Concorde Capital’s asset management arm, Concorde Investors Ltd., will manage the fund and Colliers International will act as co-manager and property advisor. The fund will focus on development projects in the office, retail, logistics and residential sectors of Ukraine’s real estate market. “Drawn by the prospect of high yields and considerable asset appreciation, we see large western investors almost daily coming here to invest, but developers are not offering a well-structured approach to building new premises — the market is so immature it eagerly accepts low-quality malls and office centers,” says Concorde Investors Ltd. partner Steven Cheshire.Reached at his office Kiev, Cheshire tells GlobeSt.com that office occupancy in Kiev is 100% but most if not all office towers there are still being built with concrete and brick. “The walls are two-feet thick, so the window bays are two-feet deep and there are no lobbies to speak of, tiny parking and crazy floor schemes,” he says. In addition, he says there a severe shortage of logistics space. The joint venture plans to take advantage of the situation by bringing higher standards to the Ukrainian market. “The combination of a pro-business government, heightened foreign investor interest and a severe shortage of quality property in most sectors of the Ukrainian real estate market make this a perfect time for the Ukrainian market,” Cheshire says. Colliers partner Oleg Myshkin says the fast development of Ukraine’s banking system, as well as the entry of conservative institutional investors with a core strategy of acquiring prime income-producing properties “will allow the fund to leverage returns on its investment through project and permanent finance, as well as to exit from completed projects.”