Sun, Jul 05 2009
Lewis Charles Sofia Property Fund announced it would receive 1.89 million euro in gross proceeds from the sale of part of its project in Sofia, Thomson Financial said. Lewis Charles sold 10.3 per cent of the total build area of its project to an unnamed insurance fund, based in Athens, according to investor.bg.
Gross revenue from this disposal, the first made by the fund, would be 10.49 million euro, including development costs and profit share, Thomson Financial quoted the company as saying.
The transaction involved the sale of 61 apartments, 10 offices, six shops and a total of 31 underground garage in its project in the Krastova Vada boroughs, investor.bg said.
The deal represented an average price of 930 euro a sq m for the area sold.
The project was expected to be completed in December 2008 and return on investment was expected to be 24.3 per cent, investor.bg quoted a statement by the fund as saying.
The fund was expected to make further sales in the near future. The Lewis Charles portfolio includes project in Sofia, Govedartsi, Razlog, Plovdiv, Veliko Tarnovo and Dolna Banya and was estimated at 84 million euro.
The project will be financed by the Bulgarian Bank for Development, and the Joint European Support for Sustainable Investment in City Areas, or Jessica Programme, although the report has so far failed to reveal the total cost of the vast enterprise.
The strategic plan envisages the conservation of the nature "for decades ahead", and it was formulated by a municipal team headed by professor Ivan Nikiforov, backed by Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev.
Once the overhaul and reconstruction of the Sofia–Vidin line is complete, it will cut travel time to three hours, as the train will be able to reach speeds of up to 160 km/h, shortening the journey to three hours.
Marriott however has made it clear that is not interested in investing in construction, but rather to occupy and manage existing buildings. Its strategy is to obtain management contracts.
Investors realise that it’s not viable to have a building remaining empty over the course of a year – so it's better for them to employ more flexibility to offset that loss.