In the Spotlight

ORIGO: COFFEE SHOP & ROASTERY BUSINESS

Another successful story, Origo was opened in 2013 by local entrepreneurs Mihai Panfil and Bogdan Nicolae, close to the old city center, on Lipscani street, in a quiet area. The place is today a successful business and serves coffee during day time, while in the evening it transforms in a cocktail bar. Due to a very appreciated product, the coffee from Origo can be served in other locations such as French Revolution éclair shop in Piata Victoriei and Cooperativa FruFru – a restaurant with four units opened: in Universitate and Amzei market and in America House and Eurotower office buildings. The same coffee from Origo roastery can be found in Steam, a smaller coffee shop concept, with two units opened near Romana and Aviatorilor Sq.

TED’S COFFEE – THE INTEGRATED EXPANSION STRATEGY

Ted’s Coffee, the specialty coffee chain owned by Romanian entrepreneur, Vasi Andreica, has adopted an integrated expansion strategy and today has 35 units in Bucharest, Sibiu and Ploieşti, planing to add Braşov to the list. The expansion strategy for this brand included: street locations, shopping centers, office buildings and “shop in shop” locations.

NEPI ROCKCASTLE

NEPI Rockcastle is expected to begin works at the expansion of Promenada Mall, a mixed project of 60,000 sq. m of retail and office spaces. According to a company public report, the new development has benefited of 33 million EUR investments up to the end of 2017, the total costs reaching 166 million EUR, with a targeted opening date for Q2 2020.

ONE UNITED

One United Properties, the developer known for its premium-residential projects, has formed a new office division and bought in this area North Gate, where Renault renewed its 20,000 sq. m lease. The market value of the building is 28 million EUR.

THE METROPOLITAN HOSPITAL

A public project, The Metropolitan Hospital to be built on the former public transportation base (RATB), was recently approved by the General Council of Bucharest Municipality. The new medical unit will have 1,500 beds and requires an investment of 300 million EUR.

AURELIA LUCA

Skanska’s commercial development unit in CEE announced in early February the appointment of Aurelia Luca as Managing Director for Skanska Property Romania. She also became a permanent member of Skanska CEE’s commercial development unit Management Team.
Aurelia has over 16 years’ experience in the real estate market. She started in Skanska Property Romania in 2012, where she held the position of Leasing Manager, and from 2016 to 2017 as Country Director.
In her previous roles, Aurelia was fully committed to successfully delivering, leasing and divesting the Green Court Bucharest office complex, strengthening Skanska`s position in the northern part of the city with the Equilibrium project, and leading the way as Skanska entered a new sub-market with the Campus 6 development.

SILVIANA PETRE BADEA

JLL has appointed Silviana Petre Badea as managing director of its Romanian business, based in Bucharest, beginning with March 2017.
Silviana joined JLL at the start of 2015 to lead its capital markets business in Romania. During this time, she has spearheaded the expansion and evolution of the team and services offered to clients, with JLL continuing to enjoy the largest market share of capital markets transactions in the country.
JLL Romania is one of the top real estate consultancy firms in Romania, serving big institutional clients. The company was recently involved in the sale of Radisson Blu Hotel in Bucharest, assisting Elbit Imaging during one of the biggest investment transactions last year.

MIRELA COVASA

She is the Chief Financial Officer and a member in the Board of Directors of NEPI Rockcastle, the leading retail property investment and development group in CEE.

She has joined NEPI in February 2012 and was appointed CFO in February 2015. Following the merger between NEPI and Rockcastle, Mirela was appointed CFO for the new entity beginning with May 2017. She has graduated with a finance degree from Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies and is a member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and Chamber of Financial Auditors of Romania (CAFR).

Prior to joining NEPI, she was senior manager at PwC, where she spent eight years performing audit assignments in Romania, Slovenia and India. She has 15 years of accounting, auditing and financial experience.

EMA IFTIMIE

She is Commercial Director for Globalworth, the leading office investor in Central and Eastern Europe. The company founded by Greek business man Ioannis Papalekas is today the biggest office owner, with assets totaling 1.8 billion EUR.
Ema’s real estate career spans over 16 years, beginning with Victoria Holding and continuing with BOB Development and Upground. In her current role, she is part of the management team, responsible for frontline liaison with potential occupiers and letting agents.

SINZIANA PARDHAN

P3, one of Europe’s leading logistics property investor-developers, promoted last year Sinziana Pardhan to the role of Country Head in Romania. Pardhan, who was previously Acquisitions Director for P3 in Romania, took over from Blake Horsley, who has become P3’s Group Development Director.

Sinziana oversees the company’s continuing expansion in Romania, a market that P3 believes has great potential due to strong economic growth and increasing importance in Europe’s manufacturing supply chain. With extensive experience in investments, acquisitions and disposals, she had previously spent nine years working at real estate consultancy Colliers.

P3 has a total of 370,000 sq. m in 14 warehouses in P3 Bucharest and another 100,000 sq. m of land which allow future expansion. Located just 13 km from the city center, the park is on the city ring road, which provides easy access to all six Bucharest districts, Henri Coanda International Airport (22 km away) and the A2 motorway. P3 is looking to expand in Bucharest as well as central and western parts of the country.

Given the impact of technology upon real estate, industrial sector is ranked number one for investment and development prospects in 2018, largely on the back of the growth in online retail sales.

“Technological change is clearly playing out in the retail sector, and as retail shrinks, logistics expands, as does the last-mile delivery convenience to the consumer”, says one global capital markets adviser.

Until recently, residential was seen by many institutional players as a niche sector, and for some, too specialist. Today, the industry appears less bothered by the obstacles to investment and increasingly swayed by the opportunities that could emerge from huge housing shortages across Europe. The Emerging Trends Europe survey reveals availability of affordable housing as one of the key social problems facing the industry in 2018 – more of a concern than environmental issues and mass migration.

Redevelopment is the most attractive way to acquire prime assets, thus translating into a low-risk strategy based on astute asset management and refurbishment rather than a hasty return to speculative development.

The greater importance attached to asset management reinforces the trend by institutional investors towards employing fewer and larger managers. Low returns and a lack of product in a late-cycle market have underlined the importance of “smart asset management”.

“We are not going to be able to generate the returns we want by buying assets and sitting on them,” says one pan-European investment manager. “We have to think about the management of the tenants, refurbishment and re-gearing.”

The rise of the flexible office sector and co-working stands out in Emerging Trends Europe. They are much more than simply property buzzwords but, as the interviews reveal, a workplace phenomenon whose influence has taken hold of the European industry in a profound way since last year’s report.

“As landlords we have to be more flexible,” says one convert to co-working. “Tenants are asking for shorter leases and break options. It requires a change in mindset and a willingness to take more risk.”
“Not everything is going to be WeWork,” says one value-add investor. “I still think there’s a huge amount of money to be made in traditional offices with larger occupiers. But the proportion of the market will grow for co-working, smaller companies, incubator space. Flexibility within buildings – the ability to sub-divide – becomes increasingly important, which comes back to obsolescence.”

The investment in its new HQ comes in line with the company’s policy for a sustainable activity as well as its commitment as a reputable employer. The 12,500 sq. m. compound has two interconnected buildings: one is destined for the facilitates dedicated to the employees (such as fitness area, restaurant, coffee shop, lounge & relaxation areas) and the other one comprises the office spaces.

On a very competitive HR market, where multinationals compete fiercely for skilled workforce, Lidl shows high focus on its reputation as an employer. The company has recently announced that will increase the salaries starting 1st of March, the minimum gross wage of a seller working at a Lidl shop following to reach 3,000 RON (approx. 650 EUR). In this context, the headquarters becomes a strong attraction and motivation instrument for the HR department.

The new building benefits of 233 parking units, 7 charging station for electric cars and 40 bicycle parking places. The project used 100% sustainable, certified & recycled materials, integrating one of the most technologically advanced construction solutions. The office building is to be certified by BREEAM.

Started in 2010 as an online bookstore and grew into an online family mall. The retailer has developed a strong pick-up points’ network (where it also showcases some products) with 15 locations in Bucharest and another 19 in the country.

The online fashion shop which promotes Romanian designers was opened by local entrepreneur, Mirela Bucovicean, in 2010. Five years after, Molecule F opened a concept store in Promenada, the shopping mall from Bucharest belonging to NEPI.

Palatul Universul

An abandoned building in downtown Bucharest, which hosted a printing house and the editorial team of “Universul” newspaper in the inter-war glory years of the Romanian capital, was rehabilitated by an investor seizing the historic flavor opportunity of the property. The estate has become a “creative hub” and hosts an interesting tenant mix: the headquarters of BBDO advertising agency, Cumulus architecture office, a co-working space – Talent Garden, a cocktail bar, a contemporary dance studio, an art gallery, Beans & Dots coffee shop, Apollo 111 Bar & Theater.

In the picture – Palatul Universul, photo by Andrei Margulescu

In a wish to cash in from the effervescence on the real estate market, corporations have begun to sell their real estate assets to focus on the core-business:

• Telekom has sold to Forte Partners a land downtown Bucharest and plans to sell Tandem building located in the same area.
• OMV Petrom also announced plans to sell a building located in an area targeted by real estate investors – Aviatiei, near Barbu Vacarescu – Floreasca hub.

Given the impact of technology upon real estate, industrial sector is ranked number one for investment and development prospects in 2018, largely on the back of the growth in online retail sales.

“Technological change is clearly playing out in the retail sector, and as retail shrinks, logistics expands, as does the last-mile delivery convenience to the consumer”, says one global capital markets adviser.

Until recently, residential was seen by many institutional players as a niche sector, and for some, too specialist. Today, the industry appears less bothered by the obstacles to investment and increasingly swayed by the opportunities that could emerge from huge housing shortages across Europe. The Emerging Trends Europe survey reveals availability of affordable housing as one of the key social problems facing the industry in 2018 – more of a concern than environmental issues and mass migration.

Redevelopment is the most attractive way to acquire prime assets, thus translating into a low-risk strategy based on astute asset management and refurbishment rather than a hasty return to speculative development.

The greater importance attached to asset management reinforces the trend by institutional investors towards employing fewer and larger managers. Low returns and a lack of product in a late-cycle market have underlined the importance of “smart asset management”.

“We are not going to be able to generate the returns we want by buying assets and sitting on them,” says one pan-European investment manager. “We have to think about the management of the tenants, refurbishment and re-gearing.”

In Romania, Skanska is to implement the virtual reception concept in Campus 6 project

The rise of the flexible office sector and co-working stands out in Emerging Trends Europe. They are much more than simply property buzzwords but, as the interviews reveal, a workplace phenomenon whose influence has taken hold of the European industry in a profound way since last year’s report.

“As landlords we have to be more flexible,” says one convert to co-working. “Tenants are asking for shorter leases and break options. It requires a change in mindset and a willingness to take more risk.”
“Not everything is going to be WeWork,” says one value-add investor. “I still think there’s a huge amount of money to be made in traditional offices with larger occupiers. But the proportion of the market will grow for co-working, smaller companies, incubator space. Flexibility within buildings – the ability to sub-divide – becomes increasingly important, which comes back to obsolescence.”

In Romania, Impact Hub inaungurated a new premises last autumn in Vastint’s Timpuri Noi Square project.