Austrian real estate company Immofinanz has refinanced three properties in Poland for EUR 250 mln with German lender Helaba Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen (Helaba).

Austrian real estate company Immofinanz has refinanced three properties in Poland for EUR 250 mln with German lender Helaba Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen (Helaba).

The property-backed transaction includes the award-winning Silesia City Center shopping mall in Katowice as well as the IO-1 and Brama Zachodnia office buildings in Warsaw.

The Silesia City Center, which was acquired by the Immofinanz Group in 2005, is the largest and most modern shopping mall in Upper Silesia. Katowice is the hub of this region, which is one of the most important economic centres in Poland. The 110,000-m2 shopping mall has 66,000 m2 of rentable space that provides room for 240 retail outlets and 3,000 parking spaces.

A project to expand the Silesia City Center by 20,000 m2 was launched in 2010. The existing facility has been fully rented for some time, and tenant interest in the new space is also substantial. The newly designed shopping centre is scheduled to open in autumn 2011.

The refinanced portfolio also includes two office buildings in Warsaw: the Brama Zachodnia and the IO-1. The 14-storey Brama Zachodnia was completed in 2001 and has 24,000 m2 of rentable space. The IO-1, which opened in 2007, has 23,000 m2 of rentable space and is fully occupied. Both objects offer ideal connections to the traffic network and state-of-the-art facilities.

'Successful refinancing, especially in economically challenging times, confirms our strategy. This transaction is an impressive demonstration of the Immofinanz Group's strength on the market and its ability to find cooperation partners in the financial world', said group CEO Eduard Zehetner.

Last month Immofinanz closed a $100 mln (EUR 79 mln) refinancing deal with Nordea Bank for two shopping centres located in Moscow. The refinancing efforts for the two properties were begun at the end of 2009 and successfully closed in August 2010, despite the extremely challenging situation in the international financial markets, the company said in a press release.

The shopping centres, Golden Babylon 1 and Golden Babylon 2, are 100% occupied. Until now, both properties were entirely financed with equity. The two properties have formed part of the Immofinanz property portfolio since mid-2006, and were the first investments made by the company in Moscow.