Old Town Centre, Prime, Small City, South-West Centre, Core, West Centre and Highstreet is a division of downtown Warsaw suggested by the owner of Warsaw Fund IVG, which over the last three years invested, among others, in seven office buildings in the centre of the capital. The reason for determining the division of this area of the city is the intensive development of the office market in Warsaw, and hence the need to re-define potential investment zones.
The conventional division of the capital, which has been used up till now, is too general and does not include all investment opportunities. Such zones as Mokotów Business Area or Central Business Area are too global. After more than 20 years of development, the market in the capital is mature enough to differentiate e.g. the pricing in much more detail than even a few years before, confirms Maciej Zajdel, the President of IVG Poland. Therefore, building from scratch a new commercial real estate investment fund in Poland, from the very beginning we had to bear in mind the assumptions of diversification of risk and competitiveness, which were firmly established by our investors. At the very beginning we had to assume that within the frames of 200-million fund, concentrating only on the centre of Warsaw, we cannot invest exclusively in one building, on the contrary - in several buildings of equally high standard and with similar investment value. What is more, potential investment buildings should be located in such a way that they compete for tenants as little as possible, he adds.
The division proposed by IVG specifies seven zones in Śródmieście, which are distinguished as far as commercial and town-planning issues are concerned. Our aim is to try and invest in one building in each of the commercial districts, included in our division of Warsaw. As it turns out, our ambitious conceptual plans are successful, though they cost us a lot of effort, but we consequently implement them, says Maciej Zajdel. The president of IVG Poland points out that foreign investors more and more frequently notice the diverse centre of Warsaw.
Warsaw is one of the most attractive investment locations in Europe for commercial real estate entities. Warsaw Fund IVG is one of the first institutional funds created in Germany, which fully concentrates on one city and one segment outside Germany. In our example, we observe that the new division of the central district of Warsaw gives a sense of security to the institutional investors who value stability, in spite of the fact that all buildings from the portfolio of our fund are located in the centre of the capital, thanks to the detailed geographical and commercial division, they ensure a strong diversification in terms of the investment profit profile, explains Maciej Zajdel.
Within the frames of the new division of Śródmieście, IVG singled out, among others, the Highstreet district, which consists mainly of Chmielna, Marszałkowska and Nowy Świat Streets, that is, the most popular shopping streets in the city. In this area, there are also offices, e.g. Chmielna 25. According to the experts of IVG, Warsaw has the potential to develop the Highstreet district and in medium-term perspective it will equal in this respect European metropolises as Prague, London and Berlin.
Finally, in the portfolio of the Warsaw Fund IVG there will be office buildings from each one of the areas: Młodziejowski Palace (Old Town Centre), Le Palais (Core), Chmielna 25 (Highstreet) Nowogrodzka 21 (Small City), Norway House (South West Centre), Ujazdowskie 10 (Prime) and Phoenix (West Centre).
The division of Śródmieście into seven investment districts allows even more meticulously to build the image of Warsaw as a city joining rich and difficult history with modernity, sums up the President of IVG Poland.