Nové Mesto nad Váhom / Prague, 3 June 2019 – Arete Invest, a fast-growing Czech fund focusing on investments in real estate, obtained the occupancy permit for a new hall in its Slovak industrial and logistics site in Nové Mesto nad Váhom in May. This investment into a new central warehouse for the Central and Eastern Europe region for the Factcool group, an international network of internet fashion stores controlled by the HB Reavis group, reached almost EUR 12 million. The new warehouse, in which Factcool will operate from June, offers 17 300 m2 of storage area. Together with the construction of the new hall, the infrastructure of the whole Nové Mesto site was also expanded, meaning 49 000 m2 is now prepared for further immediate construction.
“The Slovak market is strategic for the further development of our fund. After the acquisitions we made here in the past two years, we have started down the road of our own development. We completed the new storage hall for Factcool on time, without exceeding the budget and at the required level of quality. This shows we also understand how to expand our real estate portfolio through our own construction efforts. This is important for us because we are an active investment fund, and this is how we are succeeding in significantly increasing value for our investors,” said Lubor Svoboda, co-founder and chairperson of the administrative board of the Arete Invest fund.
“We chose Arete Park Nové Mesto as the centre for our further expansion because of its fantastic location. The locality is unique thanks to workforce availability as well as access to the motorway network. Our new central warehouse in addition reflects all the modern trends in industrial real estate,” says Jan Skopeček, director of FC ecom, s.r.o. in the Factcool group.
The Factcool group will operate in the new, modern warehouse by the D1 motorway in Nové Mesto nad Váhom from 1 June, and will gradually consolidate its operations for the Central and Eastern Europe market to this locality. Construction of the building was commenced last July. With an area of 17 300 m2 the hall offers a usable storage height of up to 17.3 metres. The lease contract has been concluded for 10 years from the completion of the hall. The new tenant will create over 100 jobs in the park.
Arete Park Nové Mesto is to expand further
Demand for storage and production spaces in Slovakia is showing stable growth, and in the Nové Mesto na Váhom region the leasable space vacancy rate is actually significantly lower than in the rest of the country. Arete Park Nové Mesto therefore now has another 49 000 m2 of space with a building permit, ready for immediate construction. All the necessary infrastructure for new buildings was also built together with the construction of the hall for Factcool. “Talks are already under way with other tenants who could occupy the remaining free areas for construction,” said Tomáš Novotný, member of the investment committee of the Arete Invest CEE II Sub-fund responsible for asset management.
The site at Nové Mesto nad Váhom was purchased by the Arete Invest fund from Prologis two years ago. The financial value of this transaction ranked it among the largest real estate transactions of 2017 in the industrial sector in Slovakia. The completed part of the site is 100% leased by C&A, Raben Logistics and Vetropak Nemšová with an average lease duration of 5.3 years, a unique value for a purely logistics locality.
