pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank pro-vided an investment facility of €63m to CBRE Property Fund Central and Eastern Europe, an investment fund focusing on retail assets in Poland and Slovakia, managed by CBRE Global Investors. CBRE PFCEE will use the proceeds for the refinancing of the well-known shopping center “Wars Sawa Junior” in Warsaw. The transaction closed in August 2017. pbb acted as arranger and sole lender under the facility.
CBRE Global Investors are one of the leading investment managers globally, and in Europe they are the second largest non-listed retail manager with 75 shopping centres in their portfolio.
Wars Sawa Junior is prominently located in the city centre of Warsaw directly op-posite of the Palace of Culture. It was built at the turn of the 1960s and 70s and was the first department store to open in Warsaw, and was later converted into a shopping center. The asset offers a gross lettable area of over 37,000 m² in retail and office space. It is currently almost fully let to a mix of international and national tenants.
Charles Balch, Head of International Clients, UK & CEE at pbb Deutsche Pfand-briefbank said: "We are very pleased to support CBRE PFCEE in this Polish retail refinancing, and we are looking forward to other transactions with them, both in Poland and Slovakia. The deal underlines our continued strong interest in the CEE real estate markets, and it was a particularly interesting to be involved in a land-mark building of this nature in Poland.”
