ING Real Estate Investment Management is entering Slovakia with the purchase of the Europa Shopping Center in the central Slovak town of Banska Bystrica. The centre will be added to ING Real Estate Property Fund Central and Eastern Europe (ING PFCEE), which was launched in December 2006.
ING Real Estate Investment Management is entering Slovakia with the purchase of the Europa Shopping Center in the central Slovak town of Banska Bystrica. The centre will be added to ING Real Estate Property Fund Central and Eastern Europe (ING PFCEE), which was launched in December 2006.
The newly-built shopping centre provides 30,648 m2 of gross lettable area over three levels, together with 1,000 parking spaces in an underground garage and on top of the building. The scheme has some 25,000 m2 of retail space and an additional 5,000 m2 of leisure floorspace. The leasure element of the scheme is let to the third largest multiplex in Slovakia and features six screens for 1,000 visitors, a fitness centre and several restaurants and cafés. There is also about 1,100 m2 of office space.
A 22-storey mixed-use building is under construction directly adjacent to the centre. ING RE said this property will offer some 8,000 m2 of offices on 16 floors, with apartments and a restaurant on the top floors. Completion of the tower is anticipated for the middle of 2008.
'After our first acquisition in Austria last month, we are very proud to have concluded our first acquisition in Slovakia. Less than four months after launching ING PFCEE we have successfully entered two new markets,' said Martin Sabelko, managing director of ING Real Estate Investment Management Central Europe.