Department head or senior representative in Poland, real estate
Wojciech Koczara
Department head or senior representative profile
Wojciech was appointed to the position of the Head of Real Estate & Construction Department in Poland in May 2012. He has been advising domestic and international investors in relation to the purchase, sale and lease of commercial estates and the performance of development projects. He has advised on various significant real estate, corporate and financing transactions in Poland, including the acquisitions and disposals of office buildings, hotels and shopping centres, as well as projects concerning logistics centres.
Key current clients
A strong client base includes leading brands such as PGIM, REICO, Deutsche Asset Management (Deutsche Bank), Panattoni, Pradera, Segro, Corum, IAD/ZFP realitní fond, Plaza Centers N.V. and UBM. Most of the team clients are long-standing relationships.
Participation in property sales and acquisitions between October 2017 and September 2018
• REICO, the manager of the largest and oldest Czech open-ended real estate fund, on the EUR 116 million purchase of the Proximo I office building in Warsaw;
• Plaza Centers N.V. with respect to the sale of the Toruń Plaza shopping and entertainment centre in Poland. The transaction closed for an asset value of over EUR 70m;
• Real estate investment fund ZFP realitní fond managed by ZFP Investments, which is part of the Slovak IAD Investment, on the acquisition of the Kotlarska 11 office project in Kraków from UBM;
• Qualia Development - a property development company belonging to the PKO Bank Polski capital group - on the sale of a hotel located in the centre of Zakopane;
• GD&K and UBM - on a sale and leaseback of Park Inn Hotel Cracow managed by Radisson Hotel Group by joint venture partners, i.e. GD&K and UBM to a fund managed by Union Investment Institutional;
• Corum Asset Management on the acquistion of Castorama DIY store in Poznań.
Participation in development projects between October 2017 and September 2018
• EME Aero on the investment regarding the development of a service centre for repair, maintenance and testing of aircraft engines in Jasionka near Rzeszów. The value of the investment, which will start in May 2018 - is estimated at EUR 150 million.
• the consortium of TORPOL S.A., Astaldi S.p.A., „Przedsiębiorstwo Usług Technicznych INTERCOR” sp. z o.o. and Przedsiębiorstwo Budowy Dróg i Mostów sp. z o.o. on the construction of the state-of-the-art Nowa Łódź Fabryczna railway station, one of the largest railway projects in the European Union and the most modern in Poland. The value of the entire project amounted to PLN 1.75 billion.
• Lufthansa Technik on a project concerning development of an aircraft engine service centre in the Legnica Special Economic Zone in Środa Śląska in south-western Poland which have been carried out by joint venture of Lufthansa Technik and GE Aviation.
• Egger - on the development of a new wood based panel production facility in Biskupiec, in north-eastern part of Poland (green-field investment).
Total value of the transactions on which your company adviced between October 2017 and September 2018 (IN EUR)
EUR 5 BILLION
Please say why you should be considered for the award
• We have been on the Polish market for over 20 years and take pride in having one of the biggest and most experienced teams consisting of top real estate experts who have advised on the most significant transactions in Poland for several years. Clients describe us as ‘well experienced, supportive and co-operative” and praise the team's international approach and its "good commercial sense." (Chambers Europe 2018)
• We cherish long standing relationships with top real estate players and only in Poland acted on transaction in excess of EUR 5bn.
• Participation in the leading real estate projects on the market.
• Active construction team advising on leading projects in the market, including on the contractual aspects of the construction of the Nowa Łódź Fabryczna railway station.
