A hotel in the middle of Kyiv, Ukraine, sold for more than twice its original asking price in the midst of a war with Russia that has now spanned more than two-and-a-half years.

The State Property Fund of Ukraine announced the sale of the 363-room Hotel Ukraina, which has been state-owned since it was built in 1961, for 2.5 billion Ukrainian hryvnia, or about $60.4 million. The Kyiv Independent news site reported that the buyer, private businessman Maksym Krippa, bid more than twice the starting price that was set at 1.05 billion hryvnia. 

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Investment bank Evercore plans to relocate its London headquarters after signing one of the city’s largest office leases of 2024.

The company preleased 135,000 square feet across five floors at a Victoria Street building under construction by global real estate investment manager BGO, in a transaction first reported by CoStar News. The deal marks the third-largest lease this year in London and is also the largest preleasing on record for its Victoria neighborhood.

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Belgian real estate investment trust Montea acquired 17 properties that were part of a French logistics portfolio owned by British investment firm Tristan Capital Partners as part of Montea’s new four-year growth plan.

The acquisition marked an investment of nearly €150 million for Montea, sources told Business Immo. The portfolio consists of 17 logistics assets spread across France, with built-up areas totaling 80,000 square meters. Buildings are fully leased and occupied mainly by French transportation firm Jacky Perrenot.

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German fund manager HIH Invest established a new business unit geared to higher-risk, value-add investments, responding to growing demand from international investors, particularly for logistics and residential opportunities.

The company said it is also considering buying offices as part of the new business line, to be headed by Lars Bothe, who joined the firm from Mirastar Real Estate Investment Management. HIH Invest has so far focused primarily on lower-risk investments, but officials said the company is expanding its strategy to serve a broader range of investor groups, such as international and institutional managers without a dedicated platform in Germany.

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A long-discussed plan to move the NHL’s Ottawa Senators downtown from suburban Kanata skated a step forward as the team reached an agreement with the National Capital Commission to buy land in the capital’s LeBreton Flats area.

The NCC, a federal crown corporation that owns large amounts of land in Ottawa, announced that it has reached an agreement in principle with Capital Sports Development on the 10-acre land deal that would bring a major events complex and arena district to the area 1.5 kilometers west of Parliament. The two parties announced the deal, for which financial terms were not disclosed, before a 2022 memorandum of understanding “was set to expire,” according to NHL.com.

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More than four years since the COVID-19 pandemic rewrote the script of how Americans work, commercial real estate professionals remain reluctant to celebrate what appears to be a budding recovery for New York’s office market, marked by some big company leases this year.

CBRE, the biggest global brokerage, pointed to New York as a driver of its U.S. office-leasing performance in the second quarter, which in turn led a “double-digit” increase in its global office activity. Tenants are seeking well-located, new or renovated properties with desirable amenities or getting lured to new space by proactive landlords and incentives. But brokers and analysts point to a glut of often lower quality or older unrevamped space that still presents challenges to the nation’s largest office market.

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This report was compiled from CoStar’s news publications in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France and Germany.