The Prague Real Estate practice of the international law firm Salans sees steady real estate activity in the Czech Republic.
Stewart M. Middleman, Head of CrossBorder Transactions for Salans' Global Real Estate Group has observed that: "The current activity on the real estate market in the Czech Republic is steady. We have recently closed three major real estate transactions for institutional clients.
"We advised ORCO Property Group on the sale by its subsidiary of the Radio Free Europe/Hagibor Office Building in Prague to a subsidiary of the L88 Companies, an American owned business. The transaction value was approximately US $94 million (approx. €75 million).
"We also recently advised Bluehouse Capital, a private equity real estate investment fund active in the property markets of south-eastern Europe, on its first ever investment in Central Europe with acquisitions both in the Czech Republic and in Hungary.
"In the Czech Republic, Bluehouse acquired two shopping centers in Hradec Králové and Znojmo with anchor tenants Interspar and Baumax from Carpathian Properties S.a.r.l. and its affiliates. We also advised on the refinancing by Deutsche Pfandbriefbank. As part of the same transaction, Bluehouse acquired two shopping centers in Hungary.
"Last month, we assisted another institutional investment fund client, AEW Europe, which has substantial investments in the Czech Republic, in connection with its acquisition from VGP of an additional logistics center project to be built in the outskirts of Prague.
Evan Z. Lazar, Co-Chairman of Salans' Global Real Estate Group commented: "While transaction levels have not recovered to the full 2007 levels, the increase in market activity levels that started about a year ago has not fallen off. We continue to serve our cross-border investment clients on numerous transactions in our core markets."
Source: Salans
