Globe Trade Centre, a subsidiary of Amsterdam and Tel-Aviv-listed Kardan, has begun construction of the 15,200 m[sup]2[/sup] NEFRYT office building in Warsaw. The building is scheduled to be ready for occupancy in the first quarter of 2007.

Globe Trade Centre, a subsidiary of Amsterdam and Tel-Aviv-listed Kardan, has begun construction of the 15,200 m2 NEFRYT office building in Warsaw. The building is scheduled to be ready for occupancy in the first quarter of 2007.

The total investment cost is estimated at EUR 30 mln and will be financed chiefly through a credit facility from Eurohypo Bank, with a lesser portion coming from GTC's own capital. Letting will be handled by property advisors CB Richard Ellis and Cushman & Wakefield.

Already one of the largest real estate developers in Central and Eastern Europe, GTC has several projects in the Polish capital. The NEFRYT building is being built in the Mokotow district, next to Galeria Mokotow and the Topaz building, an A-class property offering over 11,000 m2 of office space on seven storeys.

Dutch-based Rodamco Europe acquired a 50% stake in GTC’s Galeria Mokotow in 2003. Rodamco Europe also took over management of the mall which features 62,500 m2 square metres on 240 shops and restaurants, a 14-screen cinema and a fitness club.

'Following the success of the Topaz building, which has attracted such prominent companies as Roche, Cisco Systems, Honeywell and Motorola, we believe that NEFRYT will be equally popular with potential tenants,' said GTC investor relations manager Mariusz Kozlowski.

On December 4 last year, Kardan announced GTC had signed the final agreement for the sale of the Mokotow Business Park for EUR 215.6 mln to Heitman European Property Partners III Fund. GTC began construction of the first building in Platinium Business Park, near Mokotow Business Park the month before.

In late December, GTC purchased a 90,000 m2 plot in Prague where it intends to build a shopping centre with 80,000 m2 of shopping space and 80,000 m2 of office space. The total cost of the investment will amount to about EUR 265 mln.

GTC has a market capitalisation of EUR 2.4 bn and is listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. It has been active in Poland since 1994 and its current pipeline of projects in Poland represents the largest volume of investments in the company's history.