The Fifth Eurobuild Awards Gala at the Warsaw Hilton hotel

The event was a sell-out, with a record number of guests (more than 750) in attendance. After the welcoming drinks and cocktails, during which old acquaintances in the region’s real estate sector could meet up and new ones could be made, the hosts, ‘Eurobuild CEE’ magazine editor-in-chief Ewa Andrzejewska, looking resplendent dressed in a creation of Ewa Ciepielewska of Ciepielewska Design, along with famous Polish TV host Maciej Orłoś got the proceedings under way by introducing the first act of the evening – the sensational Polish female string quartet Red Heels. In the first of their four performances at the show they treated us to a rendition of the Nirvana classic ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’.

After this, a delectable three-course dinner was served, and then it was then time for the handing out of the garlands. The first six of these fell under the Tenant Awards – the unique selling point of the Eurobuild Awards, which are based on a survey of the employees of 54 office buildings, 33 shopping centres and 17 warehousing complexes in Poland carried out by Millward Brown. The main section of the event then followed, the Jury Awards. A jury composed of 183 local market experts and professionals voted electronically and independently from each other in a process supervised by KPMG.

After the statuettes were presented to the well-deserved winners and some more music from Red Heels, the time came for the section of the evening in which we proved once again to any doubters just how generous we are in the property sector. One of the items in the charity auction was a twelve-litre bottle of Collazzi wine kindly donated by wine restaurateur Robert Mielżyński – and the winning bid was PLN 60,000. Thank you so much to the big-hearted winner of the bottle. Then it was the turn of the prize raffle and its main prize of a beautiful gold and diamond necklace made by A&A Dom Jubilerski. The proceeds of the draw added another PLN 5,000 to the total, which was raised for the Fundacja Mam Marzenie (‘I Have a Dream’) charity, devoted to making dreams come true for gravely ill children. The cheque for PLN 65,815 was presented to TV and film actress Katarzyna Warnke. We shall be reporting on how the money was spent in future issues of ‘Eurobuild CEE’ magazine.

The award ceremony, however, was not yet over. Next on the agenda was the Popular Vote of audience members. Those present, using hand-held electronic devices, chose the design of the Szczecin Philharmonic hall by the Barozzi Veiga Studio as the best new architectural design in Poland, while Griffin Group’s start on the redevelopment of the historic Hala Koszyki market hall in Warsaw was judged by the audience to be the CEE region’s outstanding business achievement, and the outstanding non-business achievement went to the Fifth Real Estate Charity Beach Volleyball Tournament organised by JLL. A new award was then presented, the Most Investor-Friendly City, in which Łódź triumphed, beating off nine other major Polish cities. As always, the highlight of the ceremony was the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award, which this year went to the founder of Hungarian development giant TriGranit, Sándor Demján – a most deserving rags-to-riches recipient of the honour, not just for his business contribution to the region, but also for his commitment to charities for deprived children.

With all the statuettes handed out, it was now time for the star turn of the evening, former Genesis frontman Ray Wilson, to sing some of the group’s classic hits. The music and dancing went on late into the night and the fun and games later continued in the hotel’s Olympic Casino Sunrise until, well, sunrise the next day. All of us at ‘Eurobuild CEE’ are hoping to be seeing many beautiful future sunrises with you at all the Eurobuild Awards in the future. ν NN