Intelligent Real Estate Investments - Hines

Hines Announces the Start of Construction of Residential Project in Lodz, Poland

(WARSAW, POLAND) – The Warsaw office of Hines, the international real estate firm, announced today that construction has begun on the Arboretum, a 12-story 315-unit residential building located at 4 Lukasinskiego Street in Lodz. Project completion on the for-sale apartments is expected in the second quarter of 2012.

The 236,031-square-foot complex was designed by Staszewscy Ziólkowscy, a leading design studio in Lodz, and is being constructed on the former Aleksander Schicht factory site.

In recognition of the past, two of the factory’s nouveau brick walls will be reconstructed and have been incorporated into the new project’s design. Parking for 381 cars will be provided in a two-level underground garage.

Budimex S.A., a construction company with more than 40 years of experience in Poland, is the project’s contractor.

 “The Arboretum will offer a new level of quality to the city’s residential market,” said Mieczyslaw Godzisz, managing director of Hines Poland.

“We are pleased to be working again with Budimex S.A., a firm we are also using on an office project in Lodz.”

Apartment sales have already begun.

Prices begin at the equivalent of $170 U.S. per square foot, and apartment units range in size from approximately 400 to 1,650 square feet.

PKO Bank Polski S.A., the largest bank in Poland, is financing the project for the Hines International Real Estate Fund (HIREF).

The bank will also offer advice and assistance to Arboretum buyers regarding mortgage loans.

Hines entered the Poland real estate market in 1997 with the development of Metropolitan, a Class A office building located at Pilsudskiego Square in Warsaw, which received the MIPIM Award in Cannes in 2004 for the Best Office Building in the World.

Hines also developed the Impresja apartments in Wilanow.

Currently, the firm is developing the Sterlinga Business Center in Lodz and the Quattro Towers residential complex in Gdansk.

Hines is a privately owned real estate firm involved in real estate investment, development and property management worldwide. The firm’s historical and current portfolio of projects that are underway, completed, acquired and managed for third parties includes 1,111 properties representing more than 451 million square feet of office, residential, mixed-use, industrial, hotel, medical and sports facilities, as well as large, master-planned communities and land developments. With offices in more than 100 cities in 17 countries, and controlled assets valued at approximately $22.2 billion, Hines is one of the largest real estate organizations in the world. Hines is also a world leader in sustainable real estate strategies, with extensive experience in LEED®, ENERGY STAR®, BREEAM in the United Kingdom, France’s Haute Qualité Environnementale and with the German Sustainable Building Council. Visit www.hines.com for more information.