The seven-story building is on the edge of Wroclaw's city center. It currently has 10 international and domestic tenants, including Nokia, Siemens and BRE bank and is 82% leased. The ground level includes a restaurant and retail space.

Wroclaw is Poland's fourth largest city and one of the country's fastest developing economic centers. The city has a population of approximately 640,000 and continues to develop through the relocation to Wroclaw of a range of blue-chip companies. The building is situated on Wroclaw's main arterial road, offering access to both the city center and its international airport, which are both within 10 minutes of the site.

"This acquisition is further evidence of our strategy of increasing our presence in Poland's regional cities in all asset classes, where we see considerable potential going forward," notes Karim Habra, managing director of GE Real Estate's Central & Eastern Europe business, in a prepared statement. "We are confident that the combination of our professional asset management experience and the building's strong location will position us well to extract further value from the building." Habra explains that the acquisition brings GE Real Estate's total assets under management in the Polish real estate market to $890 million. GE Real Estate's ability to compete the acquisition using 100% equity demonstrates the company's financial strength as well as its ability to complete transactions despite challenging market conditions.

The seller, Archicom Projekt 7, took the sale as an affirmation that it is developing wisely in the Wroclaw market. "This transaction, with such a renowned partner, proves that Archicom can develop projects in carefully chosen locations, and provide an international standard with regard to effectiveness of space and the comfort of its tenants," says Rafal Jarodzki, president of Archicom. "This sale continues our development strategy in the office market.

GE Real Estate's Central European platform was established in 1999. Since then GE has completed two developments and acquired 34 properties both on its own and through joint ventures with an underlying property value of more than $1 billion. In the fall of 2007, GE Real Estate made its first real estate investment in Russia, through an investment of $50 million in Heitman Russia Property Partners. The Central and Eastern Europe division of GE Real Estate also has holdings in Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Turkey.

Continue Reading for Free

Register and gain access to:

  • Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.