The acquisition of the AFI Park office space complex near the AFI Palace Cotroceni mall from Africa Israel by Dedeman, the largest Romanian entrepreneurial business, run by brothers Dragos and Adrian Paval, set a new record on the office space market in the country.
“There have been significant office space deals of more than EUR100 million in Romania, before and after 2009, which is why the AFI-Dedeman deal may be the most important upon completion but is definitely not the only one,” said Laurentiu Lazar, senior partner, investment and valuation services with real estate consultant Colliers International.
“Colliers advised in four more than EUR100 million deals in Bucharest (S-Park, Floreasca 169A, Floreasca Park and AFI Park in chronological order), and on the biggest office space deal outside Bucharest, City Business Center in Timisoara, when Modatim and NEPI formed a joint venture.”
The first office space deals in the range of tens of millions of dollars at first and then euros, were signed in the early 2000s. CA Immo bought Opera Center for $30 million from Portland Trust in 2003. Shortly thereafter GTC sold Europe House in Piata Victoriei, central Bucharest, to Austria’s Europolis for about $30 million. Europe House was built at the end of the nineties on the structure of unfinished communist apartment building.
A year later, businessman Alexander Hergan sold Charles de Gaulle Plaza for EUR80 million to Austria’s CA Immo. Three years after that, 2007, GTC set a record by selling America House in Piata Victoriei to a French fund for EUR120 million, at a yield of 5.6%, the same as in Central and Eastern Europe and close to Western Europe.
America House has a gross lettable area of 27,000 square meters, so the price per square meter was EUR4,500. In comparison, Hermes Business Campus in Pipera (north of Bucharest) is up for sale at about EUR2,000 per square meter, while AFI Park with a GLA of 70,000 square meters is valued at more than EUR2,300 per square meter.
Second most important office building deals, EUR110 million, are actually two deals – the BOC Tower (Upground) on Dimitrie Pompeiu, which Globalworth bought in 2014 and the Charlemagne portfolio – Construdava, Phoenix Tower and Millennium building (which was damaged by a fire), which DEGI bought. The former two were sold to Adamamerica last year.
The last major office space deal was closed in 2015, when GLL bought the Floreasca Park on Calea Floreasca for EUR104 million.
Floreasca 169A was another over EUR100 million deal, having sold for EUR101 million in 2010.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)