KPP Retail makes first Polish investment

Polish investor Keen Property Partners Retail (KPP Retail) said on Friday that it has made its first acquisition with the purchase of Park Handlowy Eden in Zgorzelec and Centrum Handlowe Graf in Chelm, Eastern Poland. The total transaction volume comes to EUR 24 mln.

Ula Matej-Bil, spokesperson for KPP Retail, said that the properties were transferred to KPP Retail from parent companies Keen Property Partners, Master Management and Development Solutions, who have long been active in the Polish property market.

The assets include the Park Handlowy Eden property offering 29 shops, home furnishing outlets, as well as restaurants and cafés. The mall, with a gross lettable area of 8,500 m2, was opened in May 2008 and has been acquired for EUR 16.8 mln. The mall's tenants include retailers Media Expert, Jysk, Komfort, Takko, Abra, Meble Hel, Pepco, Martes Sport, Ambra, Sphinx, Kolporter, Reporter, Big Star, Pabia, Komputronik, Mohito, Coccodrillo and Yes. KPP Retail has co-developed the scheme which is being managed by parent company Development Solutions.

The second property located in the city centre of Chelm is a one-storey Graf shopping centre, housing a Carrefour hypermarket, an Avans electronic store and a shopping gallery with 19 local shops, as well as 150 parking spaces. Graf's gross leaseable area is 4,539 m2, and the investment vaue amounts to EUR 7.5 mln. The shopping centre was opened in August 2008. KPP Retail's parent company Master Management is marketing the retail space within the mall.

KPP Retail, which was launched during the Mapic retail property fair held in Cannes this year, represents a group of companies active in the Polish real estate market in property advisory, management, development and investment. Richard Keen, managing director of Keen Property Partners said: 'Apart from the exciting projects currently underway, we are presently securing a very interesting pipeline of regional and local retail centres to be rolled out during the next few years. We will be able to announce some of these in the first quarter of 2009.'

According to Matej-Bil, KPP Retail is currently developing, redeveloping, managing or leasing retail buildings with a total area of approximately 150,000 m² in the country. The company has recently secured also several land plots for the construction of retail centres in the near future.