The loan, contracted at the end of September, is the highest amount issued as real estate funding since the beginning of the crisis, in 2008. The previous record was held by GTC, which secured EUR80 million funding, for the same City Gate, from a consortium that included Alpha Bank Group, Bank of Cyprus and Eurobank EFG Group.
“We have obtained EUR100 million from Erste Group Bank to refinance City Gate project. It is the second refinancing deal after the buildings were finished,” said Shimon Galon, chief executive of GTC Romania, one of the largest real estate developers on the local market.
City Gate, developed in partnership by GTC (59%) and Blue House Capital (41%), is located in northern Bucharest and it has been completed in 2009. It has a rentable surface of 46,000 square meters, in two 18-level towers. The unit required an investment of EUR100 million.
Some of the compound’s notable clients include Microsoft, Millennium Bank, Romtelecom, Hoffmann – La Roche, Rompetrol, E.On and Autoitalia.
GTC plans to start a new office project, in partnership with local entrepreneur George Copos. The building will have an area of some 36,000 square meters, and will need investments of around EUR65 million, Galon said. He added the company is in advanced talks with two banks for the project’s financing.
Founded in 1994, GTC is one of the main realty developers in Central and Eastern Europe. The company is active in Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Croatia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Russia and Ukraine.