Equest Balkan Properties sold its City Center Sofia shopping centre to US real estate investment management firm Heitman for 101.5 million euro, Dow Jones Newswires reported. The deal was announced on September 19 and should be wrapped up in November. read more

Bulgarian property funds do not plan to raise fresh cash for investments and have no trouble selling their finished projects, major market players have said. The bulk of the companies have already secured resources and agreed bank loans, but owned up to read more

Bulgarian real estate investment trust (REIT) Bulland Investments has broken ground on a Nissan showroom and service centre in the northern town of Veliko Turnovo, executive director Valentin Karabashev has said. read more

Sofia-based investment company Investra will spend some 20 million leva in the construction of a retail and industrial park in Pleven, in northern Bulgaria. read more

Twenty tenants of Pfohe Mall in the Black Sea city of Varna have stopped paying rent to the Bulgarian mall owner, Luke REIT, over the poor management of the shopping centre, Dnevnik daily reported on September 3 2008. read more

Bulgarian construction firm Iris will put about 30 million euro into the first stage of construction of Business Park Rousse, managerial agent Rostislav Dimitrov said. read more

From October 10 to 12, the forth edition of the Balkan Real Estate Conference (BalREc) will take place at the Inter Expo and Congress Center in Sofia. The property expo gives opportunity to professionals not only to present their products and services, but to create read more

The historic building of the central mineral baths in downtown Sofia has long become one of the city’s symbols. Officially closed in 1986, its fate remained undecided, while every municipal administration that came to power deliberated what new purpose to attach to the old building. read more

A consortium led by Varna-based construction firm Comfort was picked to build Grand Mall Varna shopping centre in the city, website investor.bg reported on August 28 2008, quoting developer Orchid Developments Group. read more

Arco Invest, the Bulgarian subsidiary of Estonian real estate company Arco Vara Group, secured a new 15.5 million euro loan to refinance existing debt contracted for the construction of its mixed-type Boulevard Residence project on Madrid Boulevard in central Sofia. read more

Bulgaria will close a record number of schools this year, allowing developers to remodel the buildings into hotels, retirement homes, spa centers or small factories, a Dnevnik investigation has found out. read more

Advance Terrafund, the Bulgarian real estate investment trust (REIT), said its agricultural land totaled 24 300 ha at the end of July, up 500 ha month-on-month and 5300 ha year-on-year. read more

The Bulgarian Defence Ministry will put 243 properties around the country up for sale in autumn, as it attempts to shed redundant assets, defence minister Nikolai Tsonev said. read more

The average price of land plots suitable for construction near Sofia has increased between 10 and 15 per cent since the beginning of 2008, Era Izida Properties has said, quoted by website investor.bg. read more

BTC, the dominant Bulgarian fixed-line telecom, will seek shareholder approval to transfer 100 real estate properties valued at over 281 million euro to one of its subsidiaries. The general meeting of shareholders is scheduled for September 23. read more

Italian company Co-Ver Industrial won the tender for the construction of a business centre near Sofia Airport, Italian news agency Ansa said as quoted by Dnenvik daily. read more

Seven of the 20 mall-type schemes currently under development across the country are located in cities with less than 200 000 residents, Q2 market data of real estate consultants Forton shows. read more

Turkish businessman Fuat Guven will be the new owner of Business Centre 1 in Haskovo, Bulgarian news agency BTA said. Guven was said to pay more than 11 million leva without VAT for the business centre. read more

Three out of Europe’s top five markets with the best location for industrial or logistics facilities were in Central and Eastern Europe, according to the European Distribution Report 2008 published by real estate consultant Cushman&Wakefield (C&W). read more

With residential property prices up in Plovdiv, both new and old constructions continue to see demand. read more

The local unit of German retailer Lidl has won a competition for a 4892 sq m plot of municipal land in Pazardjik, southern Bulgaria. The company plans for the supermarket to have a built-up area of 1500 sq m and 70 parking spaces. Lidl Bulgaria upped its bid on the plot to 1.722 million leva from the initial offer of 1.5 million leva. The company is to build the supermarket in nine months. As part of the deal, Lidl Bulgaria has undertaken to invest 350 000 leva in renovating the sporting venues of the nearby Hebar complex. read more

LS Property, one of the major investors in Bulgaria Mall in Sofia, announced plans to develop a number of projects in Bulgaria for a total of 450 million euro, website investor.bg reported, quoting the company's executive director Miles Summerfield. read more

FairPlay Commercial, an office property developer that is part of FairPlay International, said it plans to build distribution warehouses and a 120 000 sq m logistics park. The location of the new property developments was not named. The warehouses would most likely be in smaller cities with shortage of purpose-built logistics properties, FairPlay Commercial board director Mario Zahariev said. read more

Carrefour, the French hypermarket chain, announced plans to build a retail-entertainment complex in Stara Zagora, weekly Stroitelstvo Gradut said. The total investment will amount to 10 million euro as the property itself will be situated on a land plot of 20 900 sq m. The project features a mall, whose retail space will be 14 575 sq m, as well as hypermarket on a further 6324 sq m. Architect Ilian Iliev of Planning Ltd. has been picked todesign the mall, with Carrefour currently still looking to select a construction company to build it. With the opening of the complex, Carrefour has promised to offer 400 new job positions when the project is completed by 2010 as planned. read more

XarXa Real Estate, a Spanish company specialising in property sales and investments, arrived on the Bulgarian scene. Its motto is “Let's turn our competitors into our partners”, Petar Atanassov, executive director for the Bulgarian branch of the company, said during a news conference July 3. XarXa means “fishnet” and it has been established in Barcelona, Spain in 1994. It is a part of Gestion Immuebles Compartidos, a world network of 80 companies based in Spain and other European countries. read more

In 2008, entrepreneurs still find commercial and business centres the most appealing projects for investment. But there is a possibility this tendency to change after 2010, when all planned construction is completed, the market in Sofia might become saturated, consultants Arco Real Estate said in a statement. read more

Mall of Varna, which claims to be biggest shopping centre built in Bulgaria to date, officially opened its doors to the public June 12. The day of its opening also marks the official change of ownership, with British privately-owned Miller Developments taking over. Intersevice Uzunovi AA, a major Varna-based investor, has invested close to 50 million euro in the project, but agreed to sell the then-incomplete development for 120 million euro. The selling price is the highest paid for a shopping centre in Bulgaria so far. It is also the second most important transaction in the country in regards to real estate value, according to Dnevnik daily. The annual rate of return, estimated by Miller Developments, is up to 7.5 per cent, the daily said. read more

European Trade Center, an office complex whose construction is already underway on Tsarigradsko Chaussee in Sofia, would be completed in 2010 and should bring seven per cent return on investment, investors in the project told reporters on June 2, as quoted by Dnevnik daily. The complex would have a total built-up area of 70 000 sq m, making it one of the largest in Bulgaria and comprising a tenth of modern office space currently available on the market, Colliers International, the consultant of the project, said. read more

Real Estate Services Bulgaria, developer of retail complexes Mall of Sofia, Mall Plovdiv and Mall Rousse, announced plans to build a fourth retail-entertainment complex in Stara Zagora, RESB said in a statement. RESB will be partnering with Gradus-1 OOD, active in food production and a leading company on the Bulgarian poultry market. The 72 million euro project was showcased on May 27 in Stara Zagora to city officials, among them mayor of the town Svetlin Tanchev read more

Mall Varna, the second mall in the Black Sea city of Varna, will open its doors to customers on June 12 with a four-day grand opening programme, the shopping centre said in a media statement on its website on May 21. It will allow 100 people, picked through a lottery on its website, a sneak preview two days earlier. read more

German discount store chain Penny Market announced plans to build a five-million-euro hypermarket in the town of Shoumen, company representative Miroslav Boulva told municipal councillors, as quoted by Dnevnik daily. The company plans to buy 4000 sq m in the area of the former commercial-industrial zone in Shoumen, of which 1000 sq m will be used for the building itself and the remainder for the construction of 250 parking places. read more

Swiss concern ABB gave the go-ahead to a project to build a $20 million (12.92 million euro) plant near Bulgaria’s second largest city Plovdiv, the concern said in a May 15 statement. The plant will become an internal supplier for ABB, which will manufacture automated components in other factories of the concern. read more

Days after real estate investment trust Equest Balkan Properties announced that it would sell some of its assets in Bulgaria and other neighbouring countries, it announced that it had sold the former Hotel Serdika to Uniqa Real Estate, the real estate subsidiary of Austrian insurer Uniqa, Dnevnik daily reported on May 15. Equest managing partner Georgi Kroumov confirmed the news but declined to specify the value of the transaction until the deal was finalised. read more

By the end of the year Serbian Delta Maxi plans to open 10 new supermarkets in Bulgaria, as part of its regional expansion campaign, Serbian broadcaster B92 reported. Delta Maxi bought a majority stake in Bulgarian retail chain Piccadilly last year, at which point its CEO Dragan Filipovic said the company would invest 70 million euro in Bulgaria over the next two years. read more

Austrian investment fund Immoeast acquired a 50 per cent stake in Cherno More Park from Germany’s ECE Projectmanagement, the German company announced. Once completed, the 150 million euro development will be the largest retail centre in Varna. read more

Investment fund Equest Balkan Properties plc (EBP) was considering the sale of the first shopping mall in Bulgaria, City Center Sofia, Investor.bg quoted Naomi Kora, relations manager for the fund’s investors, on May 1 2008. read more

Bulgarian Land Development (BLD) fund, registered at the London stock exchange, announced the purchase of five buildings from Dimitar Blagoev Printing House in Sofia. The buyer, a joint venture between BLD and private investor Norhtridge Capital, acquired a gross actual area of 29 000 sq m, Investor.bg said. read more

At last year's edition of Balkan property exhibition (BalPEx), vacation real estate in resorts were everyone's darlings, but this year it looks like malls, office buildings and industrial parks will be the main drivers of growth on the real estate market, Dnevnik daily reported on April 21. The vacation segment of the market is over-saturated, causing investors to look elsewhere, according to the daily. As a consequence, a large number of projects presented at this year's edition of BalPEx, which ended on April 20, were for commercial and industrial real estate. read more

Commercial property developer Parkridge wants to build the second mall in the town of Veliko Turnovo and has already held talks with mayor Roumen Rashev on the issue, Dnevnik daily reported on April 21. Parkridge is ready to invest 30 million leva in a multi-purpose commercial project, which would spread on a plot of around 1.5ha, Rashev said, as quoted by Dnevnik. read more

The shopping malls market segment could face a crisis in 2010, Emanuil Santev, head of real estate department at Hypo Alpe Adria Leasing told participants at the second regional conference Balkan Real Estate Conference (BalREc) on April 15 2008, as quoted by Dnevnik daily. read more

Sandanski Mall, the first multi-use shopping and entertainment centre in the town, will open in April 2008, developers Sandanski Property said on April 10, as quoted by investor.bg. read more

The value of major deals struck on the Bulgarian commercial property segment rose 35 per cent on the year to 878 million euro, a report released by CB Richard Ellis on April 9 showed. The international property consultancy said that the figure was only an approximation because of the lack of transparency on the market. read more

Bulgarian firm Marsa plans to invest 22 million euro on Haskovo Mall, the first shopping centre of its kind in the southern Bulgarian town, investor.bg reported. read more

Starr International, the company owned by former chief executive of American Insurance Group (AIG) Hank Greenberg, and London-based fund manager Letterstone Group would launch a one billion euro Eastern European property fund, the Financial Times reported. read more

Retail space rentals in Sofia rose by 24 per cent last year, according to the latest Foros real estate company report, released on April 3. Rent prices in the capital fluctuated between 40 and 130 euro a sq m in 2007 and rents in shopping centres – between 30 and 60 euro read more

Varna-based Foros real estate company, with about 15 years of experience on Bulgarian property market, announced the start of its franchise project at a news conference held on April 3. read more

Aladin Ltd. will invest nine million leva in the development of a multifunctional building in Sofia’s Lyulin neighbourhood, near Slivnitsa underground station, the company said in a statement on April 2. read more

European Convergence Property Company investment fund (ECPC), the owner of Central Mall in Veliko Turnovo, said in a filing with the London Stock Exchange on March 31 that it had received a number of offers for the retail centre. read more

After the success of the first four malls in Bulgaria, this sector emerged as one of the most attractive investments last year, Pavlina Nikova, project manager in Forton International consultancy, said, quoted by Pari daily. read more

German no-frills airline Germanwings, owned by Lufthansa, will renew flights between the Cologne-Bonn and Berlin-Schoenefeld airports in Germany to Bourgas and Varna airports in Bulgaria in May this year, according to its summer season schedule made public on its website. read more

Sofia's office space market registered another quarter of strong performance at the end of 2007, according to the latest MBL consultancy report. read more

A modern office and retail centre will spring up on the site of the former Ramstore hypermarket in Sofia’s Zapaden Park (Western Park) neighbourhood, Dnevnik daily reported. The project, which is still in an incipient stage, is developed by the plot-owner - Israeli national Ori Niv and his company On Bulgaria. read more

The first hypermarket of the CBA Asset Management chain in Veliko Turnovo opened its doors on March 27 in Retail Park Veliko Turnovo, company officials told investor.bg. Technomarket, Danish homeware retailer JYSK and a number of other retail chains opened their outlets in the shopping centre on the same day. read more

The first-sod ceremony of the new Technopolis outlet in Pernik took place on March 25, sgrada.com reported. The future retail unit will be located at 21 Kiril and Metodii Str, near Elena Georgieva sewing factory. read more

EuropArabBank has agreed to pay a new record high rent for an office, located in the Champs Elysees in Paris, property advisor Savills reported, as quoted by investor.bg. read more

Industrial and construction equipment engineering company Euromarket Group is opening its regional centre for Central North Bulgaria in Pleven today [March 27], investor.bg reported. read more

Bulgarian company Doverie Brico, which holds the rights of the French Do It Yourself (DIY) retailer Mr. Bricolage for Bulgaria, Macedonia and Serbia, is in negotiations to expand its franchise across the region – to Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Kosovo read more

The Bourgas-based building company Masterbuild Ltd will develop holiday complexes in the village of Kableshkovo and Medovo near Pomorie, company representatives said, as quoted by Dnevnik daily. read more

Petar Doudolenski, executive manager of Mall Rousse project signed on March 25 the contracts with key tenants in the shopping centre, including international cinema operator Cinema City, Piccadilly supermarkets, household appliances retailer Technomarket, Happy restaurant chain, fashion brands Esprit and Oviesse, shoe-seller Leonardo and bookstore chain Ciela. read more

Germany's ECE Projektmanagement, one of Europe's leading firms in developing and managing shopping centres, has launched its third project in Bulgaria, the Cherno More Park mall in Varna, to be located in close proximity to Hemus Highway in the western part of the city, Dnevnik daily reported. read more

This year’s edition of the Balkan Property Exhibition (Balpex), to be held from between April 18 and April 20 in Sofia at the Inter Expo Centre, 147 Tzarigradsko Chaussee Blvd, will highlight a number of retail and office projects, including eight large mall projects, the event's organisers announced, as quoted by investor.bg. read more

UK-based Bulgarian Property Development Plc (BPD), which specialises in developing, trading and investing in Bulgarian properties, declared its intention to build a business centre with an adjoining office and warehouse in Krivina village, near Sofia, expert.bg reported. read more

Local real estate investment trust (REIT) Prime Property BG will pour 64 million euro in the development of a business compound in Plovdiv’s Trakiya district, company officials said, as quoted by investor.bg. read more

The rental prices of a regular two-room apartment in Sofia rose by an average of four per cent in the first quarter of 2008, while three-room flats in prime locations posted a 6.7 per cent mark-up in the same period, according to a recent report of the local think-tank Industry Watch. read more

The Irish property investment group West Incorporated won first prize at the fourth annual national Office of the Year competition, held by Office Magazine on March 20 at the Bulgarian news agency (BTA) press club. read more

Dutch property group Corio is mulling potential acquisitions, including in Romania and Bulgaria. While some of its competitor companies have been affected by the global credit crunch, Corio, on the other hand, is still in a position to raise an expected 3 billion euro through bond emissions and the sale of some of its assets read more

More than 115 charter and 20 regular routes will be available this summer from Varna airport, on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, said Andreas Helfer, executive director of Fraport Twin Star Management, the outfit operating the Varna and Bourgas airports under a concession arrangement read more

Despite the expected delivery of 55 000 sq m new office space to Sofia’s business property market this year, it will not be enough to meet the existing demand, according to a forecast by business property agents Forton, cited in a research paper by Cushman&Wakefield property consultants. read more

Polish real estate company Globe Trade Centre (GTC) received the prestigious Central & Eastern European (CEE) Real Estate Quality Award as developer of the year 2007. read more

Dounav (Danube) mall project, the first shopping centre in Rousse, designed in line with International Council of Shopping Centres (ICSC) standards, will break ground on March 20, its developer Marmeg said. read more

Arena cinema, Bulgaria’s largest cinema operator, signed long-term contracts with Bulgaria Mall in Sofia and Grand Mall in Varna, as a part of its national expansion strategy, the company said in a statement. read more

Sofia’s industrial and logistic areas posted a nine per cent mark-up year-on-year in rental prices, which places Bulgarian capital among Europe’s 10 cities with fastest price growth, a recent survey by Cushman&Wakefield (C&W) international property consultants showed. read more

Alfa Developments, fully-owned by Bulgarian industrial group Alfa Finance Holding, has formally notified the Commission for the Protection of Competition (CPC) of its intention to acquire 75 per cent in property developer Landmark, Alfa Finance said in a statement on March 17. read more

The Spanish apparel brand Zara has already rented a 1 800 sq m unit in the future Carrefour mall in Sofia, to be located in Tsarigradsko Chausse Blvd. The retail chain will enters the Bulgarian market directly through its Spanish manufacturer Inditex read more

French retail giant Carrefour sold its development, which is currently being constructed on Sofia’s Tsarigradsko Chausse Blvd, to Greek fund Assos Capital, for roughly 200 million euro, Alexandros Papageorgiou, the new fund's managing director, said in a statement, as quoted by Kapital weekly. read more

Sofia's five-star hotels have been cutting prices since the beginning of 2008 because of a decrease in the number of business tourists, Ivan Angelov, Grand Hotel Sofia's general manager said, as quoted by Dnevnik daily on March 14. read more

Barely 14 per cent of the international retailers are present on the Bulgarian market, a survey of 250 brands, carried out by CB Richard Ellis consultancy company showed on March 14.

The report, called How Global is the Business of Retail, placed Bulgaria in 40th place in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region.

Britain was home to the highest percentage of the world’s top international retailers, with 55 per cent of 250 brands surveyed present, according to the study, which analysed
retailer presence in relation to market sectors, country of origin, regional trends and other influences.

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The segment of high retail streets in Europe does not seem to be affected by the global credit squeeze, Boris van Haare Heijmeijer, Cushman & Wakefield's head of shopping centres in Europe, said at the 2008’s edition of the international property exhibition MIPIM, held in Cannes, as reported by investor.bg. read more

Marinopoulos, the Greek partner of the French group Carrefour, has reached an agreement with a buyer for Carrefour mall in Sofia, Pari daily reported on March 13. Marinopoulos holds the rights to develop Carrefour's retail chain in Bulgaria.

The new owner is likely to be a large Greek company planning large-scale real estate investments in Bulgaria, Pari said.

Carrefour mall, occupying a terrain of 54 000 sq m on Tsarigradsko Chausse Blvd., is still in the construction stage and is a part of a biggest project called Hermes Park. Hermes Park is being developed by Carrefour Bulgaria and European Trade Centre, which co-own the land and the building rights.

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Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD), the investment arm of Dubai government, signed a deal with shareholders in Spain’s second largest property company Colonial to buy its investment properties, valued at more than nine billion euro, Propertyweek reported. read more

Apparel retailer C&A, which manages some 1000 outlets across Europe, is hiring management staff for the launch of operations in Bulgaria, Dnevnik daily reported on March 12, quoting company sources. However, the first local C&A stores are not expected to roll out before 2010, the paper claimed.

C&A is one of the largest clothes retailers in Europe, managing outlets in Latin America and China as well. Set up in The Netherlands in 1841, its biggest trademarks include Clockwise, Westbury and Your Sixth Sense. read more

Two years after announcing plans to build a store in the town of Pazardjik, in southern Bulgaria, German discount retailer Lidl has notified the town mayor of its interest in a 1.3 ha land plot, Dnevnik daily reported on March 10.

Lidl, part of Schwarz Unternehmensgruppe, wants to build a 1500-sq m supermarket with 85 parking spaces, its first in the country. The company has offered to gentrify at its own expense the immediate vicinity of the proposed supermarket.

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Returns on investments in first-class hotels in Sofia were around 8.5 per cent at the end of 2007, thus outstripping the yields generated by office and retail developments, which ranged between 7.5 and 7.85 per cent, respectively read more

London-listed Dawnay Day Carpathian Plc (DDC), the retail property investment company established to invest in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), is mulling the purchase of two retail centres in Bulgaria, investor.bg reported on March 7. read more

The first international-style shopping mall in Montenegro, Delta City in Podgorica, is set to open this summer. Colliers International is the exclusive leasing agent, previously responsible for the leasing of Delta City in Belgrade, which featured a host of big international retailers.

Delta City will have a gross actual area of 24 000 sq m. Located three kilometers from the center of Podgorica, its primary catchment area – the entire city of Podgorica – will be nearly 200 000 people. Its secondary catchment area, the center and south of the country, raises that figure to nearly 450 000 people, or nearly two thirds of the country.

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Industrial Park Sofia East (IPSE) logistics project in Elin Pelin municipality, 25km east of Sofia, would cost 125 million leva if current plans are developed fully, Alexander Gebov, head of Paladin Property Development, the industrial park’s project manager, said on March 5. read more

Interhotel Grand Hotel Sofia, the company controlled by Henry Gwyn-Jones, is negotiating the sale of the 136-room Radisson SAS Grand Hotel, one of the six five-star hotels in Sofia, Dnevnik daily reported on March 6.Both foreign and local prospective buyers were interested in the hotel, the daily claimed. Gwyn-Jones refused to comment. Contacted by Pari Daily, Fernando Gruenberg Stern, general manager of Radisson SAS Grand Hotel, said that such talks are commonplace and could not influence the quality of services, provided by the hotel. read more

Current supply of logistic space in Sofia still lags behind demand and rentals, which currently come to as much as 5-6 euro a sq m, higher than in most countries from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region and rivaling prices in the United States and Western Europe, Andriana Petkova, managing partner in ProCon International Property Consultants read more

GE Real Estate Central and East Europe and US-based Tishman International inaugurated their so-called Marketing Suite on March 4, an exhibition area revealing some of the products and services that will be available in the 250 million euro Sofia Airport Centre (SAC) on completion.

“It is a unique idea for Bulgaria – a showcase testbed for the products and finishes to be used in the establishment. The exhibition room will be open 24 hours a day, enabling prospective investors to come and see what they are renting,” announced Julian Edwards, Tishman’s general manager for Bulgaria.

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A shopping complex will grow on the spot of the former Maychina Grizha cinema in Gabrovo. Investment in the project is 20 million euro, Stroitelstvo Gradut weekly reported.

The investor is Mall Gabrovo Ltd., the design was prepared by Uzunov Proekt, the contractor is Force Build and the consultant is Dihris.

The gross actual area of the project is 15 400 sq m. The development will have seven levels - two of them underground - with more than 60 outlets, a hypermarket, fast-food restaurants, sophisticated bars and cafés.

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Rousse municipal council will review a proposal to increase its assistance to Project Rousse, a joint venture set up with Mall Rousse Invest, Prista Oil and Densi story.

The venture has been set up to build a sports auditorium and a complex of entertainment and sporting venues, a business centre and hotel as well as commercial facilities. Rousse Municipality contributed to the project by granting building rights and an unfinished construction site, valued at 13.7 million leva.

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Investment bank Merrill Lynch has began talks with potential investors on behalf of Pramod Mittal, the Indian owner of Bulgaria's biggest steel maker Kremikovtzi, Dnevnik daily reported on March 4. Last week, Merrill Lynch executives met metallurgical companies expressing some tentative interest in the Bulgarian mill, said the bondholder on condition of anonymity. read more

The local CBA Asset Management, a supermarket operator, earned a profit of 1.4 million leva in 2007, according to the consolidated financial report of the company filed with the Bulgarian stock exchange. The report reflects last year's performance of three subsidiary companies of the same name based in Veliko Tarnovo, Ruse and Gabrovo, Dnevnik Daily reported on March 4. read more

Lewis Charles Sofia Property Fund, an investment company focused on investment in the Bulgarian residential property market, has a pipeline of eight residential schemes in Sofia with a combined price tag of more than 45 million euro, a company statement said. The fund's property portfolio has a total build area of 567 590 sq m and currently has a valuation of 83 852 536 euro. read more

The Central and Eastern European (CEE) region has emerged as the focus for major growth in the logistics property market over the next few years, and thus an opportunity for investors and developers, according to the latest report by CB Richard Ellis on industrial and logistics property. Consumer spending over the next five years is forecast to grow much more rapidly across the CEE markets read more

Ixetic, the German manufacturer of hydraulic and vacuum pumps for the automotive industry, has announced it aims to complete a 7-million-euro plant in Plovdiv by the end of 2008, Dnevnik daily reported on March 4. The plant, which will manufacture power steering pumps and vacuum pumps, will occupy 10 000 sq m read more

Poland's real estate developer Globe Trade Center (GTC), which has mall projects in the Bulgarian cities of Stara Zagora, Varna and Bourgas, as well as several plots in Sofia, has announced plans to invest about 1.5 billion euro in new projects across CEE (Central and East Europe) during 2008 and 2009, investor.bg reported. The company’s activity will be directed primarily towards acquiring land and developing new read more

The largest British clothing retailer Marks&Spencer Group Plc set up a joint venture with the Greek Marinopoulos Group to expand its business in Eastern Europe, Bloomberg reported on February 29.

The British company acquired 50 per cent of Marks&Spencer Marinopoulos BV, which manages 38 outlets under franchise in Greece, Romania, Bulgaria and Switzerland, for  50 million euro. Marks&Spencer plans to open 50 new outlets on the Balkans in the coming years, Bloomberg said.

The acquisition is a part of Marks&Spencer's expansion and investment strategy, which includes boosting the share of international revenues to between 15 and 20 per cent over the next five years.

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Investment Corporation of Dubai offered 3 billion euro for Inmobiliaria Colonial, the Spanish developer that owns of Riofisa, which is developing two projects in Bulgaria worth more than 450 million euro, Bloomberg reported on February 28. read more

The Greek group Fourlis has signed a 12.081 million euro preliminary contract for the purchase of a plot in Sofia where it plans to develop the first IKEA hypermarket in the country, investor.bg reported. Negotiations for the land started in November last year, Fourlis officials said, but they refused to give details about its size and location. read more

John Cutts, the founder and chief executive of commercial property developer Parkridge, is continuing his expansion into East Europe, the Financial Times reports. Although the entrepreneur's initial plans envisaged expansion to Poland, due to its key location, he also saw good opportunities for investment in retail compounds in Bulgaria and Ukraine. Seven retail centres have been erected in Warsaw since Parkridge’s accession to the Polish market, which means that it might be over-supplied soon, the developer said. He added that the Czech Republic used to offer good potential, but it faced a similar problem of reaching its capacity for absorbing commercial establishments. read more

Leasing for the third stage of Serbia's first business park, Airport City Belgrade, has started recently, with Colliers International Serbia acting as leasing agent. Four buildings, each featuring 9 500 sq m of Class A office space, have already been constructed. The third stage of construction, featuring two buildings with 11 000 sq m each of office space, will be completed this summer, Colliers said.

Airport City Belgrade seeks to provide its tenants a 'City within a City', and received two awards in 2006, one for the best project for office space in Belgrade and the Organisation for Economic Construction and Development award for largest greenfield investment in South East Europe.

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Direct commercial real estate investment activity totalled 244.1 billion euro across Europe in 2007, four per cent lower than 2006, and 25 per cent higher than 2008’s expected volume, according to Jones Lang LaSalle’s recent report.

Whilst in continental Europe volumes remained strong, increasing seven per cent year-on-year to 173 billion euro, the UK was hit more than other countries and volumes slipped by over 22 per cent year-on-year to 71 billion euro in 2007.

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Spanish construction company Bogaris, formerly known as Grupo Detea, would invest 15 million euro in the industrial park in Slatina area of Rousse, local authorities said, as quoted by Dnevnik daily.

The company would design and build manufacturing, storage and office premises, Dnevnik daily reported.

Bogaris was already investing 680 million euro in real estate projects in Romania. read more

Bulgarian grocery retailer Fantastico said sales rose 18 per cent in 2007 and should add 25 this year. The company is preparing the launch of two new outlets in Sofia. The rollouts will bring to 32 the total number of Fantastico supermarkets in operation. The first of the openings will occur within days in the Mladost residential district. The 4 million leva supermarket will have an area of 2 000 sq m. read more

Sofia factory Tramcar, specialised in tram repairs and manufacture of trolleys, has long been siphoned off, but could see its financial trouble compound further by relocation plans, Sega daily reported.

Municipal councillors from different parties have insisted on moving the factory to another location with view to sell the enticing 44 000 sq m plot it currently occupies on the Tsar Boris III boulevard, one of Sofia's biggest thoroughfares.

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Israeli company AFI Europe, which already owns three residential projects in Sofia, will develop a logistic complex near Plovdiv. read more

Sales of land plots for construction in Bulgaria totalled 262 million euro last year, according to data of consultancy firm Real Capital Analytics (RCA), Pari daily reported on February 18 2008. The report includes data on the performance of office, retail, hotel, industrial space and buildings plots on real estate markets worldwide, but only for deals above 10 million US dollars. read more

The size of the commercial property marketplace is much larger than previous estimates, with 708.25 billion euro of significant sales documented in 2007, according to the latest research of consultancy firm Real Capital Analytics .

Over 32 000 properties in 75 countries were sold for 6.81 million euro or more either individually, in portfolios or in entity level transactions. read more

It's so bad that you'll probably be in line to get on a waiting list for its first night of operation. Rich Daddy Resort and Spa has entered the Bulgarian stage, designing to be the nec plus ultra of luxury living complexes on the Black Sea coast. In the style of a 19th-century British mansion library-come-Costa del Sol beach-front bar. read more

For several hours on August 22 2008, our web hosting server was unable to provide access to sofiaecho.com and to propertywisebulgaria.com, and we apologise to readers for the inconvenience. The problem has been addressed and we are confident that service will continue uninterrupted in future. Our thanks to all those involved in restoring the websites – especially given the sites’ ever-growing popularity, and our gratitude to our readers who contacted us to inquire why they could not get to their favourite read. read more