Eurobuild Awards
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Purchase of the Q22 office building, Warsaw

CATEGORY
Investment deal of the year, CEE
Q22 The Q22 is an iconic, Class A office building that stands 155 m tall over Warsaw’s business centre at the junction of Jana Pawła II Avenue and Grzybowska street. The tower offers ca. 53,000 m2 of leasable office space including an elegant and glass-fronted lobby on the ground floor. Key tenants include: Deloitte, Allegro, Linklaters, William Demant, Savills, Vestor DM, Citi Handlowy, White and Case, Boston Scientific, Puro Hotels, Echo Polska Properties and Echo Investment. The building features the most modern, best-in-class technologies. It also hosts a range of service facilities such as a 5-storey parking area (also for cyclists), restaurants, a fitness club and conference rooms. The building was designed by the renowned architectural studio Kuryłowicz & Associates in cooperation with Buro Happold Polska. Q22 is BREEAM-certified and was awarded an Excellent rating with one of the highest scores in Poland in its category. Q22 also exemplifies the implementation of outstanding and innovative sustainable technologies including an innovative system of photovoltaic panels developed by Maybatt and double-decker passenger lifts. Q22 has received many prestigious awards, including Eurobuild Awards in Architecture 2017 – 1st place in the Eco- and User-friendly Facility of the Year category, and 2017 – 1st place in the Office Building of the Year category, as well as Best Office Development of the Year and Best Commercial Building of the Year in the CEEQA Awards 2017. The building was completed in July 2016.
Name of the deal
Purchase of the Q22 office building, Warsaw
The date of closing the deal
December 2016
Value of the transaction (in EUR)
EUR 230.27 million, potentially rising to EUR 273 million
Yield
5.35%
Seller, plus brief information about the company
Echo Investment SA

Echo Investment SA is the largest Polish real estate developer, investing in three main sectors of the real estate market: residential, commercial and office. The company has been listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange since 1996 and has completed more than 120 projects in dozens of Polish towns and cities, with a total usable area of approximately 1.3 million m2. In 2015, Echo Investment became part of the rapidly growing Griffin Real Estate, Oaktree – PIMCO Group.

The company’s most important projects at present are: Galeria Libero in Katowice with 44,700 m2 of leasable area, the Browary Warszawskie office and residential complex with about 100,000 m2 and Towarowa 22 in Warsaw with over 100,000 m2 of commercial space.
Consultancy which advised Seller
Linklaters and CBRE
Purchaser, plus brief information about the company
Invesco Real Estate European Fund

IRE is a global company operating in the real estate sector that has been providing services since 1983, initially in the United States and later in Europe and Asia. It manages assets of $71.3 billion and employs 441 people in 21 offices around the world. In Europe, it has 140 employees in 8 offices: London, Munich, Milan, Madrid, Paris, Prague, Luxembourg and Warsaw, from where it manages 130 properties worth a total value of $7.9 billion located in 12 countries.
Consultancy which advised Purchaser
Colliers International and Greenberg Traurig
Financing institution
The deal was closed all-equity.
Current occupancy level
90%, however likely to reach 100% in the coming months.
Please say why this deal should be considered for the award
The acquisition of Q22 by INVESCO was the largest investment transaction in the office market in Poland and one of the biggest in Central and Eastern Europe in 2016. Q22 is an iconic, best-in-class skyscraper, an ideal investment product that features a unique blend of timeless architecture and sustainable technical specification as well as an impressive tenant mix, underpinned by investment-grade covenants, guaranteeing our client a stable, long-term rental income. The transaction highlighted investor confidence in Polish macro fundamentals and the real estate market, particularly considering the ticket size and ‘trophy’ nature of the asset.