With MIPIM 2020 fast approaching, business leaders in the real estate sector are being forced to decide whether to attend and send their staff to Cannes. The coronavirus made its long-feared entrance in Europe last week in Italy, whose border is just an hour’s drive from the Palais des Festivals. The rapid rise in the number of infected in the country quickly began ramping up the pressure on MIPIM’s organizers Reed Midem. The company is insisting that the event will go ahead as planned and has undertaken special precautions and security measures. But in the middle of the week, Cushman & Wakefield became the first of the multinational brokerages to announced it was pulling out of the event. Knight Frank followed not too long afterwards, as did Savills, CBRE, Lloyds, PGIM, EY and HOK. In addition, there have been media reports that a case of coronavirus was confirmed in the city of Cannes itself.
CIJ has learned that JLL’s Prague and Bratislava offices were not planning to attend the property fair, and that the same was true for Skanska and ČSOB. On the other hand, other developers appear determined to stick to plan, with P3, CTP and PasserInvest reporting they were going as of Thursday evening, as did the legal firm Wilsons. Meanwhile, Prague sources at Colliers said it was looking unlikely they’d be making the trip this year. Budapest-based TriGranit is another developer that will be making the trip to MIPIM as will Panattoni, however the industrial properties developer cancelled its popular party at the event. Penta Real Estate, which is taking part in the Prague stand at MIPIM, is still planning to take part this year, though it continues to monitor the situation. Switzerland has banner public events, a decision that means that the Geneva automobile show has been cancelled.
