On the way to MAPIC

Georgia Today had the privilege to meet Nina Kipiani, Country Director of Cushman & Wakefield | Veritas Brown (CW|VB), to discuss the upcoming international retail property market event MAPIC to be held on November 18 – 20 in Cannes, France.

Nina Kipiani joined CW | VB in 2012 as a Senior Real Estate Consultant and was responsible for coordinating the company’s agency services across the region. Nina has seven years’ experience in commercial real estate brokerage, including four years heading up Rakeen’s internal sales team and two years as a senior leasing manager in Turkmall. Currently, Nina is heading the Georgian office as Country Director for CW | VB.

Georgia Today: What is MAPIC?

Nina Kipiani, Country Director of Cushman & Wakefield | Veritas Brown (CW|VB): Since 1995, MAPIC has gathered the world’s leading retail real estate professionals under one roof to foster innovation, build partnerships and spark deals during three days of dedicated conferences, exhibitions and networking events. Having celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2014, MAPIC has become a major industry event gathering 8,400+ international participants, including over 2,400 retailers and 2,300 property developers for exhibitions, conferences and networking events targeting all types of retail property: city and shopping centers, factory outlets, leisure areas and transit zones. MAPIC gives the opportunity to stay on top of retail real estate trends, launch new products and find great stories. It’s a great opportunity to join live debates, hear from key industry players and discover the latest retail and property trends.

To sum up, it gives the best platform for retailers to gather new contacts with the view of efficient future cooperation for achieving targeted goals; thus we are looking forward to MAPIC being held next month in Cannes.

Q: What are the projects that you are presenting at MAPIC?

A: As CW|VB we have already attended MAPIC for four years at the Cushman & Wakefield (CW) stand. Unlike previous years, CW | VB will have its own stand separated from the main CW exhibition stand, therefore we will enjoy the pros of being a part of CW and the individual presence as CW | VB, presenting not only the global clients of the large global firm but also the projects from the regions that we cover. The idea for our stand-alone presentation was determined by the volume of projects that we represent though CW|VB. CW and CW|VB stands will be located next to each other as alliance partners’ under one umbrella.

Q: What are the projects that you will present as CW | VB?

A: As CW | VB we are promoting six main retail projects from Kazakhstan and Georgia, like the St. Regis Astana, the luxury hotel and residential project located in Astana central park. The new-build hotel will have 120 guest rooms, including 18 suites and a Presidential Suite. For meetings and events, the hotel will have a ballroom, five meeting rooms and a business center.

The hotel has the podium of high street retail accommodation seats below the residences providing premium retail and food facilities, and CW|VB will be the exclusive agent for this project.

One of the most important projects is EXPO -2017. On November 22, 2012 Astana was chosen by the International Exhibitions Bureau (BIE) to host EXPO-2017, focusing on the “Future Energy” theme. More than 100 countries and 10 international organizations are expected to participate. Around 2-3 million people are expected to visit the international pavilions from June to September 2017. This is a massive project and we are excited to be the lead retail broker and consultant.

Apart from the capital city of Georgia, we actively promote the Black Sea Coast, with projects such as “Atlas Georgia” which is an integrated development that will be built on an area of approximately 4 hectares in Batumi. The CW|VB team were requested to undertake a development feasibility study for the proposed project and, as the exclusive retail agent for this project, will be representing Atlas Georgia on MAPIC.

And last but not least we will present Merani Center, which is located on Rustaveli Avenue, with very good transport accessibility from both the historic part of the city and the modern center of the city.

We are looking forward to attending the exhibition and of course our expectations are optimistic.

Q: What kind of outcome are you looking for?

A: During the last few years we have been introduced to many useful contacts at MAPIC and, as a result of these meetings, we have completed many successful deals and have some projects in the pipeline. One of the core projects that we implemented within the framework of MAPIC is “Defacto” which we brought to the Georgian market. Therefore, from this perspective we are extremely positive about the upcoming events and hope that our mutual relations with all MAPIC participants and interested parties will be extremely beneficial and the result of our intensive work will be positively reflected on the Georgian market.

Q: What are your future plans?

A: As you know, with over 200 participants, the Investment Forum Batumi 2015 was successfully held in Batumi at the Hilton Hotel in the Black Sea region of Adjara. The event was organized by Cushman & Wakefield | Veritas Brown together with the Georgian National Investment Agency and the Government of Autonomous Republic of Adjara. The forum brought together key policy-makers, government officials, investors and business people who discussed different investment opportunities and business prospects across the Adjara region and Georgia.

Delegate feedback was highly positive and Cushman & Wakefield | Veritas Brown can announce that several high profile projects in Batumi as well as in other areas of Georgia have received investor pre-contacts as a direct result of the conference.

A similar forum was organized in London in May 2015 by CW|VB and the Georgian National Investment Agency which showed reported success. Georgia demonstrated itself as an opportunistic market for investment and gained further international recognition as a competitive country to invest in.

From all of the above you can see that we enjoy close collaboration with the Georgian government in the framework of investment forums. We are also planning to participate in the upcoming Silk Road Forum.

CW|VB provides a full range of real estate services and is in a position to meet all kinds of client requirements. Taking into consideration the country’s promising prospect, especially in the hospitality sector, we are seeking to increase our resources in this direction and commit to new projects. What’s more, the Government is working on different projects to redevelop and create other tourist destinations. We see great potential to add value through our services.

Cushman & Wakefield has given permission to expand our footprint across the region and open new offices. Therefore, I assume that we have busy and positive years ahead of us!

www.veritasbrown.com