Meyer Bergman and Neinver form €200m Poland JV

Neinver, the Madrid-based firm with a Continental Europe retail development arm, and London-based retail investment specialist, Meyer Bergman, have teamed up for a €200 million mixed use scheme at Katowice

London and Spanish private property investments firms, Meyer Bergman and Neinver, have joined forces to develop a €200 million mixed-use project at Katowice railway station in Poland.

Meyer Bergman, which is raising its debut retail property fund, and Madrid-based Neinver, said today they would hold a majority stake in the project, with a minor stale being held by Polskie Koleje Panstwowe, the Polish National Railway company. 

Development and investment financing has been secured through Pekao Bank.
 
The joint venture said the three-phase project would be finished in the second quarter of 2012. The bulk of the scheme is a 47,500 square metre shopping centre with an additional 18,000 square metres of mixed use space.
 
Katowice is the main commercial hub of the southern Poland region of Silesia with approximately 330,000 inhabitants within a 10-minute drive and more than 2.3 million people within a 30-minute drive time. 
 
Markus Meijer, chief executive of Meyer Bergman, said the venture marked the firm’s debut in Poland, which had “demonstrated strong economic indicators despite the challenges elsewhere in Europe”. 
 
Manuel Lagares, chief executive of Neinver called the scheme “one of the biggest and most prestigious projects currently being carried out in Central and Eastern Europe”.