That flat structure underpins how Demaco has evolved: from service provider into a developer holding its own long-term portfolio. “We are really a full-scope developer. We start from sourcing the land, permitting, looking for the client, leasing, construction — and even after completion, managing the properties,” Raus says.

The conversation ranges across the shocks that have defined the past few years, from the pandemic through interest rate volatility, and the nearshoring wave now pushing manufacturers to anchor supply chains in Central Europe. Demaco’s answer is proactive risk management and a strengthened internal infrastructure to carry its growth targets through 2026.

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“The growth of the company naturally brings the need to strengthen the structure and responsibilities within the group. Zdeněk has been a long-term partner in managing the company and his entry into ownership is a natural outcome,” Budař said.

Raus said the step reflects his deepening commitment to the group. “I know Demaco in detail — from a financial standpoint, to its management and individual projects, and it makes sense for me to take on ownership responsibility,” he said. “This means above all a commitment to contribute to the group’s further growth while maintaining financial stability and sustainable financing.”

The company will continue as a family-run firm in which partners bear direct, personal responsibility for decisions. “The   family character isn’t just a marketing label for us, it’s the way we run the company. Behind every decision there are specific people who bear responsibility. We want to preserve this principle regardless of how much the company grows,” said Kaizr.

Demaco now operates seven industrial parks with more than 60 tenants and a portfolio exceeding 180,000 sqm of industrial space across Kolín, Ostrava, Pardubice, Valašské Meziříčí, and Brno. It’s also carrying land capacity of over 100,000 sqm that’s earmarked for development. As a general contractor, the group is currently delivering projects worth CZK 2 billion. It focuses on manufacturing and technologically demanding facilities under its Design & Build model.

Demaco has been built without external capital and currently maintains a group-wide LTV of approximately 41%. It covers the full project cycle (design and permitting, construction plus asset, property, and facility management) with a team of 19.

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As Pavel Novak (Head of Office Agency at Savills Prague) told me more than 55% of Prague’s office stock was built before 2010. And only 12% of the market has been built since 2020.

“You have more than 200 buildings that are more than 20 years old,” he told me on ThePrime Pod. “I think that’s a bigger issue right now than the lack of new development. That’s just some of the background to the current situation, in which new lease deals are longer than ever and renewals dominate new leasing.

Companies face a brutal choice between costly relocations and ageing space — and some global occupiers are starting to ask whether Prague still makes sense at all. The situation plays into the hands of real estate investors interested in a sector with a miniscule amount of new stock. But it’s not helping build Prague as a dynamically growing place to do business.

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The issue isn’t whether this or that tariff is justified, he argues. The problem is elsewhere.

“You’re destabilizing currency markets, you’re destabilizing government bond markets, you’re destabilizing credit markets, you’re destabilizing equities. In doing all of that, you’re upending financial modelling to a certain extent. And that then does affect real estate investment.”

“This risk-free rate in dollars is becoming unstable. And as it does that, it automatically makes financial markets more volatile.”

But at least he’s got good news for real estate landlords and investors with assets in place.

The post New Podcast with Mark Robinson (EnCor Wealth Mgmt) first appeared on ThePrime.cz.

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Earlier in the year, CTP and DHL Supply Chain completed the transformation of a warehouse in CTPark Pohořelice into a carbon-neutral facility. It was done in line with the tenant’s ESG commitments to going carbon neutral as quickly as possible. Constructed in 2004, the original hall ran on gas heating and older lighting systems.

DHL approached CTP with its request to upgrade the warehouse in order to meet its carbon neutrality targets set for 2025–2030. They provided CTP with specific requirements, outlining the energy efficiency and carbon reduction goals they needed for their building. CTP installed heat pumps and upgraded the warehouse’s lighting and control systems, ensuring through a variety of studies that the project would attain maximum efficiency.

Michal Dospěl (CTP) says that project with DHL will serve as a pilot project in how to establish partnerships with other tenants with similar requirements. And he’s hopeful that the return on this type of investment will improve as such projects become more common. “As the demand for technology that we use to retrofit these buildings grows, the price will come down,” he says. “So, as time goes on, that investment in that equipment will be more economically interesting than it is today.”

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“If you combine the cost of equity — which has to work harder — and the cost of debt, it’s simply very difficult to make a rationale at the moment that now is the right time to start putting money back into real estate,” Stuart Jordan (Savills) tells ThePrime Pod. “It’s a very complex situation but I don’t believe it’s particularly psychological, rather it’s actually quite simple maths based on economic sentiments.” The deals that are happening, he says, are driven by investors who know exactly what they’re looking for.

I set up the interview after reading a Savills report on the European office market which ranked cities based on to what degree prices for prime product have adjusted to the high interest rate reality. Prague still has up to 20% to go, according to the report.

(You can listen to this episode of ThePrime Pod the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or even on YouTube)

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Fanthorpe says the current market environment shouldn’t come as a complete surprise to experience investors and companies. “This is where strong asset management prudent business plans has benefits,” he says, pointing out that unexpected situations often arise over the course of an investment. “With our assets, if we take a bottom up approach during our investment cycle, we feel that we can manage the process through the whole period until the environment is a little bit better…We’re always very conservative in our underwriting, which allows us to sort of manage the bumps along the road. That’s what all prudent investors should be doing.”

“Leases are drafted in a way where we’re obliged to index rents annually,” he says. “So subject to the euro index, we will have no choice but to increase the rents and the tenants will have to absorb that. That’s what they signed up for when they sign a real estate lease. That’s the market standard and it’s where we see the strength in a lease agreement…that’s why real estate as an asset class is attractive — because they are linked to indexation, which is different from different from other asset classes.”

Asked about the pace of construction inflation, Fanthorpe has observed a “settling”, making it easier to come to an agreement on prices with contractors. But the issue of timing continues to be challenging. “The uncertainty still is there with regards to delivery times,” he says.

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