The annual CIJ Awards 2014 for the Romania were held last night at the Intercontinental Hotel in central Bucharest in front of an excellent crowd. The event brought together the country’s top real estate developers, investors and market players who were there to see who would collect the 21 prizes that were handed out over the course of the evening. The high quality and the number of nominated projects suggest an underlying strength to the Romanian property market and reflects the improving mood over the direction of the country’s economy.
While the prizes were handed out to a wide variety of companies and individuals, Skanska was a big winner during the evening, having been called to the stage to collect awards on several occasions. Not only did the Swedish-based company win the Office Development of the Year award for Green Court Bucharest, it also picked up the Office Lease of the Year for the deal that brought Orange to that building. The same building was awarded the year’s ESSA Leading Green Building prize, while Skanska picked up the honors for ESSA Green Developer of the Year. Finally, in the office sector, the award for Office Real Estate Agency of the Year went to The Advisers / Knight Frank.
In the retail categories, the project Shopping City Targu Jiu by NEPI was judged to have been the winner of the Retail Development of the Year prize, however the Retail Lease of the Year went to the deal that brought Jysk to Colosseum Shopping Center. JLL, as it happened, won the prize for Retail Real Estate Agency of the Year.
JLL also picked up the award for Industrial Real Estate Agency of the Year, for while it was not a strong year for developments in the sector, there was still a good deal of business getting done. The Industrial Lease of the Year went to the transaction with Continental at Timisoara Airport Park.
In the crucial category of Commercial Developer of the Year, the readers of CIJ found that the most deserving company for 2014 was AFI Europe. Meanwhile, NEPI picked up a second award for Investment Transaction of the Year in honor of its deal for Promenada Mall.
The Residential Development of the Year prize went to Cosmopolis, a project by Opus Land Development, but the Residential Developer of the Year was judged to have been Adama Group. Coldwell Banker took home the prize for Residential Sales Team of the Year.
In the Leadership of the Year category, it was Sven Lemmes who was called to the stage to accept the honor in front of his peers. Constructor of the Year honors for 2014 went to Bog’Art after which Vlad Simionescu&Asociatii were summoned to the stage to collect the award for Architectural Firm of the Year. The Property Management Team of the Year went this time to DTZ Echinox, but the Project Management Company of the Year prize went to a veteran of this award, Vitalis Consulting. Finally, the award for Law Firm of the Year went to Biris Goran.
