Colliers secures five new tenants for the European Trade Center in Sofia

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1 WEEK BEGINNING OF 26th JULY 2010 COLLIERS SOUTHEAST EUROPE NEWS A REGIONAL epublication OF COLLIERS EUROPE Colliers secures five new tenants for the European Trade Center in Sofia In this week s edition: Colliers, Albania signs referral agreement with Banka Popullore Colliers, Croatia retail team has an electronics anchor secured in Lumini New deal with Audio Visual Entertainment in Greece Two new tenants for Stara Varos in Podgorica The Residential team of Colliers, Serbia continues its success in signing lease agreements and more

2 Web Food for Thought weekly selection: It s here! Our People, a new way to find and connect with Colliers professionals! Our People is a new web site that enables Colliers professionals to find and connect with each other across specializations and geographic lines. It s a secure site that will be available to the entire Colliers International community. Our goal as a region is to have at least 80% of profiles in our region completed by the end of the month. This means we need your help on this now, so we can show the rest of the Colliers International family who we are and what we do. Here is a link to a video that does a great job of walking people through updating their profile on Our People.

3 What Are You Waiting For? Or, rather, ask your clients what they are waiting for? More and more research continues to support initial green building statistics: green buildings rent and sell for more per square meter than their non green competitors. According to a recent study by RICS, with a sample size of 893 green certified buildings and 10,000 non-green certified buildings, the green certified buildings rented for on average 6% higher and sold for an average of 16% more than non green certified buildings, all other factors considered equal. While the figures vary, study after study continues to confirm these findings that green buildings achieve higher rental rates and sales prices. If that is not enough to convince a client to go green, then how about a building s marketability? The latest in green building research focuses on employee productivity and well being in green versus non green buildings. Studies have concluded that worker productivity in green buildings was on average of 3-7% greater than in non green buildings. What many often overlook is that the human capital or employees are a company s largest expense. On average, salaries and benefits account for 70-80% of their expenses compared to rent at 5% and energy at 1-2%. Much of the focus in green building has been on reducing energy usage because it is easy to quantify this cost very easily. To get a 30-40% reduction in a building s energy usage is not an easy task. Typically this comes with a lot of work and similarly cost. However, an easier and more cost effective approach to reduce operating expenses might be to focus on increasing worker productivity. For example, a 1% gain in productivity would pay for a year s worth of energy bills. While a 10% gain in productivity could pay for the entire building s energy systems. Given the average increase in productivity in a green building, a company would more than pay for their annual energy usage and would be well on the way to paying the entire cost of the building s energy systems. As the economy continues to improve, larger global companies that have made sustainability a corporate priority will require their employees to occupy space in a green building. In addition, more companies and corporations are recognizing the added value of increased productivity gained by occupying green buildings. So whatever side of the coin you are in the market, representing tenants or marketing buildings, green buildings are important to your business. And, productivity gains are just another benefit to point out to your clients. Clearly, there is more than just one way to think of green: what is good for the environment should also good for the bottom line.

4 News from Albania Re-valuation and feasibility contract with ENK Last week, Colliers received a positive and surprising call from a previous client. As a result, ENK Invest signed two contracts with Colliers for a re-valuation and feasibility study. Colliers team including our valuer Migena Zace, LEED AP, Heliana Mano Market Research & Marketing Consultant and Ledina Lamani, Residential broker went to Prishtina for completing an in depth and thorough market research covering the residential, office, retail, hotel and land market segments comparable with the giant ENK project. ENK is constructing one of the biggest mixed-use developments in the Balkans of approximately 300,000 sq. m. The project will include high-end residential complex, shopping center, office buildings and a luxury hotel. For more information about the project please visit Colliers, Albania signs referral agreement with Banka Popullore Colliers, Albania is happy to announce the signed agreement with Banka Popullore part of Société Générale Group. According to the agreement, the bank is willing to refer its clients to Colliers in need of commercial/residential services and/or ICAS reports such as feasibility studies, valuations, market research and so on. Simultaneously, Colliers will refer its clients that need mortgage loans to this preferred bank. Albanian Team is really excited to have this joint collaboration with Banka Popullore and we hope to establish similar collaboration with other top banks in Albania. A new record on a successful fast deal It took less than five days of intense work for our office broker Elona Sopiqoti to assist Tobacco Holding Group in showing selected commercial properties, negotiating and concluding into a lease agreement for 900 sq. m of warehouse and office space. The tenant is a large national distributor and wholesaler of several premium tobacco brands, alcohol, personal care and cosmetic products. Unilever portfolio of products such as Dove, Axe, Rexona and Ponds will now be stored at Henry building, which is proudly Collier s exclusive project and we look forward to more successful deals with the lease of Henry and our other on-going projects.

5 News from Bulgaria Colliers secures five new tenants for the European Trade Center in Sofia European Trade Center (ETC) has welcomed five new tenants all from within the IT and BPO sectors. Playtech, a company that develops software solutions for the online gaming industry, has leased 1,700 sqm of office space in ETC. EuroTech, CSMS, SafeCharge and SafeCup are the other new tenants in the office complex. These five new transactions amount to 6,000 sqm of occupied space in European Trade Center, when the companies move in during the late autumn. With these five latest transactions, the occupancy of ETC is now above 65%. Colliers distributes an Office newsletter to clients and partners Click here to review it! Guess who will shop for free for a year! THE MALL announces exciting opportunity to win a year s free shopping This week THE MALL launched the exciting summer campaign shop free for a year : every day from 20th July to 10th September anyone who shops at THE MALL will have the chance to win 75 euro to spend each month for the next year. By spending just 15 euro at THE MALL in one day anyone over the age of 18 can enter the game and vie for the chance to be one of the 20 winners drawn out of the hat after September 10. Internet fans who visit THE MALL s Facebook page: and fill in the questionnaire are also eligible to enter. More than 2000 shoppers submitted a form in the first day alone. Boiko Tachev, deputy manager of GAP in THE MALL said: The decorations are wonderful, they create a really festive atmosphere. It s almost like Christmas instead of the middle of the long, hot summer. Entering THE MALL is like going into another world, and our customers obviously like that.

6 News from Bulgaria Frank Whiting, General Manager of THE MALL: With this campaign THE MALL wants to support its customers over the long, hot summer period and reward their loyalty with the chance to win a substantial thank you. This is the first time our customers can benefit a reward over such a long period of time and enjoy shopping for 12 months.

7 News from Croatia Electronics anchor secured in Lumini Colliers, Croatia retail team is happy to say that Lumini shopping centar in Varazdin has an electronics anchor secured. After long and tough negotiation process, a 1,620 sqm large retail unit has been leased to a company K&K Elektronika representing the Technomarket brand known and recognized along the SEE region. Technomarket is an exclusive distributor of the world renowned brands Samsung, Panasonic, Electrolux/AEG/ Zanussi and Blaupunkt, offering also the products of all leading consumer electronics brands such as Sony, Philips, Pioneer, Whirlpool, Yamaha, Jamo, LG, Daewoo, Grundig, JVC, Indesit, Ariston, Gorenje, Hitachi, etc. Lumini s construction process is also progressing as shown on the aerial view photo attached. ICAS Croatia signs an intriguing deal For the first time, a private person turned to our ICAS team with a very common request, but maybe a little uncommon background situation for a company like ours. Our client is just going through a divorce and is now in the process of resolving financial situation between her and her wealthy husband. Needless to say that the valuation report she ordered from us includes their assets and belongings placed in a magnificent bay Divna (translated Beautiful ) on the Pelješac peninsula on the very south of the Adriatic coast. The valuation will include: land plot pertaining a house in Donja Vručica land plots both in Donja Vručica and Divna auto-camp business in Divna beach-bar business in Divna When translated into figures, the valuation will include over 100,000 sqm of agricultural land, 114,000 sqm of forest, approximately 1,000 sqm large house, 27,000 sqm of pastures, over 10,700 sqm large orchards, over 3,500 sqm of plough land and more than 62,000 sqm of karst area. Even though the story won t finish with a happily ever after end, we will engage in the process both professionally and humanly and help our client close this chapter of her life.

8 News from Croatia News from Montenegro Colliers, Croatia media presence in 2nd quarter of 2010 valued to According to the AVE analysis, the presence of Colliers, Croatia in the local media has been valued to 120,000 for the 2nd quarter of We consider it a really great figure that once again shows that Colliers International is considered as an opinion maker and a respectable source of information on the Croatian real estate market. It also confirms that media interest for the real estate market is big and worth while taking that fact seriously as it gives us an opportunity to be the knowledge leaders, to educate and make the real estate information transparent and closer to the both media and public. AVE analysis is a method that evaluates media space by comparing the price of advertising space to the size of a news item in order to estimate the approximate commercial value. New contracts for Stara Varos Centre signed Colliers International, Montenegro announces that two new tenants entered Stara Varos Centre. The tenants are: Etoile on 30 sqm Love and Fashion store selling clothes; Eta on 28 sqm where Vesna Rakocevic will be presented, the lady that produces Montenegrin traditional costumes. Since the opening of Stara Varos Centre is coming closer and closer (it is expected that the opening will be in October this year), Montenegrin Team hopes that the negotiating processes that are happening these days will lead to success.

9 News from Greece New deal with Audio Visual Entertainment! Audio Visual Enterprises S.A, the largest film distributor in Greece and Cyprus with, not only collaborations with Warner Bros, Walt Disney Motion Pictures, Paramount/ DreamWorks but also with subsidiaries in the Balkans, has opted, amongst competitors, to go with Athens ICAS team on an evaluation study concerning a shopping mall situated at Aharnon Street, a major thoroughfare in Athens. The main part of the building is leased by STER CINEMAS, a subsidiary of Audio Visual Enterprises, which accommodates a multiplex and a set of leisure and recreation uses. The client in reference requested an investment evaluation study to present in court due to a dispute with the owner of the mall. The Athens ICAS team evaluated the existing lease agreement and development cost in terms of past and future revenues and calculated financial ratios such as IRR, ROI not only for the existing development but also for other alternative uses. Business Case on behalf of Kraft & Cadbury Colliers, Hellas has been participating in an EMEA wide RFP for Kraft Foods office locations around Europe, a company which made its first appearance in the early 90 s in Chicago and only in a hundred years has approximately $43 billion in revenue. The portfolio in question for Greece represents almost 6,000 square meters of space spread in two different locations in Athens, in particular Nea Ionia and Metamorphosi. Kraft Foods have recently bought out Cadbury in Greece, a company which was founded in 1824 by John Cadbury. Colliers was asked to provide Kraft with a realistic idea of the savings that could be generated as part of the integration of the two companies in one, currently in process. Colliers Hellas with the support of Colliers EMEA Corporate Solutions have presented the first draft of The Business Case that depicted a 20% reduction in Kraft s operating costs by relocating both companies to one location. A space optimization study is under way, which will determine whether Kraft & Cadbury can be relocated to one of the existing headquarters or to a new office space. Collier s fee is estimated based on the savings achieved and capped at 100,000. This is a great opportunity for Colliers because there are additional industrial and logistics portfolios from Kraft and Cadbury that could become part of the scope in the future.

10 News from Serbia Furthering specialized knowledge in property valuation On 20th July 2010, Marija Gazivoda, Market Researcher successfully completed the six-month training and examination program within the Valuation and Investment Course provided by the College of Estate Management in Reading (Berkshire), United Kingdom. The Valuation and Investment Course is the online distance learning module which provides general knowledge of real estate investment and valuation techniques and is considered as the first step toward professional accreditation in the field of real estate investment, surveying and valuation. Congratulations to Marija, and we hope this will encourage other colleagues to follow Marija s steps. New Residential Team successes The Residential team of Colliers, Serbia continues its success in signing lease agreements.\ Borivoj Popovic, Senior Residential Consultant has signed a lease agreement with the General Manager of Merck in Serbia. The representative of the leading pharmaceutical company leased an exclusive apartment which is situated in Senjak, an affluent and distinguished part of Belgrade. Furthermore, Borivoj has also secured a residential deal with a high ranking diplomat of the Embassy of Kuwait. The property is a 320 sqm, brand new house, with one of the best views in Belgrade.

11 Our EURO Team Ana Vuković Editor in Chief Danijela Pavlek Editor Croatia Maria Kutelova Editor RISE Ivana Gazivoda Editor Montenegro Heliana Mano Editor Albania Bojana Filipovski Editor Serbia Maya Klevtsova Editor Bulgaria Alexandra Vitsou Editor Greece Dalibor Novak Design