This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page Alexander Hergan has left the helm of developer Avrig 35 The former CEO is replaced by Haydn Wright appointed upon recommendation of the Taverners Group one of Avrig 35’s institutional shareholders a senior management team implemented in response to the global financial crisis and tough economic conditions in Romania is also parting company with the developer has 25 plus years of international real estate finance and restructuring experience in a variety of emerging markets “I have the utmost respect for the accomplishments of Mr It is an honor to take over as CEO and I look forward to the challenge of continuing with the success of the company,” said Wright who now has the responsibility of implementing Avrig 35’s project pipeline The executive vice-president roles will be filled by Matthew Proskine the current commercial sales and marketing director who has represented Avrig shareholders for the past four years The new team’s immediate focus will be the completion of the Avrig 7 Business Center (a 30,000-sqm office project) in Piata Obor, the World Class Gym in the Iris Shopping Center Titan and the development of the 100,000-sqm Pallady Shopping Center anchored by Auchan and Decathlon. Avrig 35 was founded in 1999 by four American investors The company draws upon the significant real estate experience of its owners to tackle projects in different areas of the Romanian market ranging from the development of a diverse portfolio of Class A office space to retail We use cookies for keeping our website reliable and secure providing social media features and to analyse how our website is used the investor whose name is linked to real estate development business Avrig 35 has been a serial investor both in Romania and the US which is now developing another retail project he owns six other businesses in the US and is also a member of the Sibiu stock exchange   Alexander Hergan has been investing in real estate in Romania for the last 11 years and is planning on retaining his focus on property and the local market While in the minds of most people his name is linked to real estate and in particular the landmark project Charles de Gaulle Plaza the businessman has been involved in other businesses as well most of which have been in the United States in areas as diverse as software and medical equipment He is also the director of Peregrine Financial Group The company was among those that helped with the launch of futures transactions on the Sibiu stock exchange (Sibex) in 1998 The businessman was a founding member of the Chicago Board of Options Exchange He has also been involved in the project implementing derivative contracts linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average Both Hergan and his partner in the venture say they have taken into account how the market will be in the future “You have to look over the hill,” advises Hergan Both investors have also seen increasing interest from retail players in the last six months. “Retailers have approached us saying they want to be in this location. Everyone is knocking at the door now, and retailers want to be in the east of the city,” says Van Breemen. French retail group Auchan and sports firm Decathlon were the first two to sign leasing agreements for stores in Pallady Shopping Center. This is not Auchan and Avrig 35’s first project together The French firm has also leased space in Avrig 35’s retail developments Iris Shopping Center in Bucharest and in Pitesti Residential is however not his favorite type of project at this moment […] We have not hit the bottom in residential yet,” he says He doesn’t think the office segment will suffer anytime soon because of the lack of office projects and the demand for this type of space The Pallady scheme was initially foreseen to include a large housing project but “the market is saturated now and it will take a long time for it to swallow all this residential,” cautions the Avrig 35 CEO When asked whether the company had lost any money in the real estate down spiral the chief financial officer of developer Avrig 35 The company has three projects under construction and a few others in advanced stages of planning bank financing in place for most of its ongoing projects and a 5 million sqm land bank but it still wants to share risk and is looking for strategic partners for some of its projects “This is the right moment to take joint venture partners on board There is only so much one can bear on one's shoulders,” says Warmerdam Using partners is not a new approach for Avrig 35 The Iris commercial center in Titan was developed in partnership with Aerium the office building Warmerdam overlooks from the firm's rented offices across the street was a development in partnership with CA Immo Both projects were eventually sold to third parties which is what Avrig 35 intends to do with the ones it still holds But at the moment “we haven't asked for any offers There is nobody knocking on the door in the current market just opportunistic buyers looking for distressed assets,” says Warmerdam the firm is working on its first residential project a 60-unit building on Mihai Eminescu Street and is planning some more residential properties The biggest of them will be a planned 3,000-unit project in the Baneasa area of Bucharest where the developer owns 35 hectares of land “The Baneasa project will deliver affordable housing We want to sell it for around EUR 1,000 per sqm You get the volume of sales on the affordable market Most people are looking for EUR 60,000-70,000 apartments not for EUR 200,000 apartments,” Warmerdam explains The first phase of the project should deliver 750 apartments but “this is not the kind of project which we will start this year I hope we will do it next year,” the CFO goes on A 30,000-sqm office complex is also under construction on Avrig Street close to the developer's former headquarters The developer has owned the land for six years A third project soon to go under construction is the third phase of its retail project in Titan which will add some big box retailers like World Class The first two phases of the project were bought by investment fund DEGI which has an option to buy this third phase too Avrig 35 says it has attracted funding from several banks on the Romanian market and is currently negotiating with BCR over a loan for the third phase of the Titan project For the larger residential project in Baneasa the developer is talking to a syndication of banks led by UniCredit “We have been negotiating for a long period of time because this is not the right moment to put a massive affordable residential project in the pipeline,” says Warmerdam A partnership with Cascade Group is ongoing for a mixed project in Theodor Pallady area where the developer owns 30 hectares of land The project is planned to deliver 100,000 sqm of retail “But it is wishful thinking that under these market circumstances we would be able to attract financing at reasonable commercial terms,” says Warmerdam so this is a project to begin later on within a two-year time frame A partnership with Industrialexport was used for Bucharest Tower Center office building too “We have agreed with our partners on the leasing strategy and we are ready to accept leases […] The building was originally in a pre-sale agreement for 40 percent of it to Alpha Bank and our partners are still negotiating with them over the contractual terms,” Warmerdam adds Avrig 35 is asset manager for the office portfolio it has sold to NEPI and in charge of leasing some of the space there and is refurbishing an office building in Brasov It has similar plans for an office building in Constanta Its plans for the future include a chain of commercial centers with additional office and residential spaces in several cities such as Focsani “In the past we felt it was an unacceptable risk to start only with the food anchors and the do-it-yourself stores so at this stage we would like to obtain a much higher pre-lease percentage If we have 50 percent of the galleria leased out then we think we should put it under construction and we can finance it,” Warmerdam explains have not only looked at real estate in Romania include companies like glass facade producer Flexxelf TV station Pratech TV and Pratech Production Real estate developer Rock Development will invest EUR 23 million in the development of the second phase of residential project Avrig Park Residence The company is now delivering the 135 apartments comprising the first phase of the project while the second phase will include 222 apartments Avrig Park Residence is the largest residential project under development in Bucur Obor area, being located on Avrig Street, 250 meters from the 2nd District Town Hall. The project represents a large urban regeneration of the area, being built on an unique structure of five floors underground, ground floor and 10 floors, the apartments being divided into two independent building bodies. the project will also include 450 parking lots and commercial spaces at the ground floor while in the underground will be all the parking and storage spaces for all the apartments The company previously developed Politehnica Park Residence a flagship project for Grozavesti – Politehnica area SVN Romania is the real estate consultant of Rock Development and one of the main real estate consultants on the local market being the leader of the residential segment located in Bucharest and across the country Not only does the developer sell projects when completed or during construction works but it also partners investment funds or developers to pursue its projects The biggest of Cascade's projects so far will be developed in partnership with developer Avrig 35 The two will build a mixed project on 30 hectares of land in south-east Bucharest in a location which used to belong to Zentiva so the investment could be around EUR 750 million which is about EUR 60 million” van Breemen told Business Review The exit value of the project could however reach around EUR 1.5 billion Cascade and Avrig 35 are currently in the design phase for the project “We are currently demolishing the existing industrial structures on site and we hope to get to construction works in nine months from now,” said van Breemen the project should take five to seven years to complete The residential portion of the project should target low to medium earners Avrig 35 and Cascade have equal stakes in the project The piece of land was bought a year and a half ago and is now worth EUR 60 million The almost EUR 800 million project and the underway Cascade Euro Tower office building should keep Cascade busy for the next couple of years so the company has no intention to pursue projects outside Bucharest “Everybody is going outside Bucharest out of necessity I need to take care of these,” says the group head Another Cascade project in partnership with another party is the EUR 60 million Cascade Euro Tower a green building in which the developer gets a 40 percent helping hand from investment fund Charlemagne Capital “They let me do my job as a developer,” says van Breemen about the partnership with Charlemagne Although already approached by other investors to sell the project van Breemen says it is too early in the game to consider a sale as there is no rush But both parties will jointly sell to a third one The project should be completed in March 2009 some 26,000 sqm of offices in the Barbu Vacarescu area is already one-third leased to Banca Romaneasca which will occupy six of the planned 18 floors The building will be erected on a 2,000-sqm plot The firm has chosen to invest in green areas around the building and on its roof top and is designing the building so that it increases the natural light “The additional cost for a green building is marginal as we could have built retail on the ground floor This translates into EUR 1.5 million less in value when the building is sold,” van Breemen explains Although he had received permits to build on 60 percent of the footprint and cover the rest of the land with green areas the sale of Cascade Office Building in November 2005 to investment fund Fabian was also the fund's first investment in Romania “It took us half an hour over a cup of coffee to negotiate the deal,” says van Breemen it took two to three months to get the necessary paperwork done and sign the deal the fewer misunderstandings and discussions you will have later,” says the businessman Having been working on the Romanian market for the last 15 years the first six of them as the head of British American Tobacco newly established on the market at the time van Breemen trusted real estate was a good bet and decided to stay with financial backing from Dutch investors His idea came simply from looking at the BAT headquarters for which the company was paying too much and which offered poor conditions for the tenants van Breemen is now living in Istanbul and travelling around as Cascade Group plans to expand regionally from Romania “Ask me where my next home will be in five years He doesn't like to talk about projects for which he doesn't even own the land but “I only talk about projects when we at least have the land.” For the future he sees less Cascade involvement in offices but definite activity in residential and retail so far excluding industrial from the forecast South-African investment fund New Europe Property Investments (NEPI) will begin works on the refurbishment of the Oromolu Mansion in downtown Bucharest and the construction of a nearby business center The project will be directed by Romanian architect Dorin Stefan and will consist of a complete refurbishment of the historic mansion as well as the construction of a tree-story extension which will feature office spaces and entertainment areas The mansion was built by a former Romanian central bank governor, Mihai Oromolu, in 1927 on a 4,500 sqm plot of land located in Victoriei Square near the Victoria Palace, the government’s headquarters. and the plot of land are evaluated at some EUR 13 million NEPI got the property from real estate group Avrig 35 as part of a debt but the transaction’s value has not been made public “Through the Oromolu project we want to leave our mark on Bucharest in the most concrete and visible way We have thus chosen to contribute as directly as possible to the reinstatement of an unique architectural style and give back this monument as well as the entire area its interwar charm,” said Martin Slabbert NEPI’s investment portfolio is currently focused on Romania where it has been present since 2007. It has since bought or developed various commercial, office and industrial real estate projects. Its portfolio was estimated at EUR 445 million at the end of 2012. NEPI’s most recent projects in Romania include the Ploiesti Shopping City mall developed in partnership with Carrefour Property Pitesti Retail Park and Promenada Mall in Braila NEPI has taken over the Lakeview office building in Bucharest this February and has begun work on The Office project in Cluj Napoca earlier this year The fund is listed on the Main Board of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the regulated market of the Bucharest Stock Exchange and the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange. providing social media features and to analyse how our website is used.