C&W expands retail operations in South East Europe

14 Sep, 2006, Athens

Phil Evans, Cushman & Wakefield's Head of Retail Asset Management, has transferred from London to the firm’s Athens office to become Head of Retail in Greece.

In Athens, Phil will head all retail services, including leasing, investment, development and management. He will also oversee the firm's retail activities in the rapidly emerging markets of Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria, in partnership with Cushman & Wakefield's associate offices, P&D Real Estate Consultants in Turkey, ACTIV Consulting in Romania and Forton International in Bulgaria.

Cushman & Wakefield puts the amount of shopping centre space due to come onto the market in the four countries of Greece, Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria at a total of more than 1.2 million square metres for 2006 and 2007. Greece will see an additional 187,000 square metres coming onto the market, Turkey 379,000 square metres, Romania 560,000 square metres and Bulgaria 98,000 square metres.

Phil Evans comments: "Greece is an extremely exciting market where a huge amount of product in the development pipeline needs to be matched to the weight of international money trying to get into the market. Further afield, Bulgaria and Romania are on track to join the European Union in 2007. Commercial real estate, and retail in particular, is a key sector to be influenced by this eastward expansion of the EU, not only because of the growth of existing business in the region but also because of the arrival of new cross-border players."

In Greece, Cushman & Wakefield's flagship retail schemes include the leasing of two of Greece's key schemes, both of which opened at the end of last year: the Mall Athens (58,500 sq m of gross leaseable area) in the Maroussi district on behalf of LAMDA Development and Mediterannean Cosmos in Thessalonika (46,000 sq m), a joint venture by LAMDA and Portuguese developer Sonae Sierra. In addition, Cushman & Wakefield is letting and management agent of the Village Entertainment Park, a 20,000 sq m scheme owned by Pradera.

Eric van Leuven, Cushman & Wakefield's Managing Partner for Greece and the firm's associate offices, says: "The appointment of Phil as head of Retail in Greece provides a new level of service for our cross-border clients interested in this emerging region of Europe."

In addition to his new role, Phil Evans retains its existing role as Head of Retail Asset Management in Europe.

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