Carl Panattoni officially awarded

Carl Panattoni, the founder, owner and Chairman of Panattoni Development Company and numerous business entities under the Panattoni brand, including Panattoni Construction and Panattoni Europe, is the winner of the 2011 CEEQA award for Lifetime Achievement in Real Estate. 

The award, sponsored by the Financial Times, was presented at the annual CEEQA industry awards gala at the Warsaw Marriott Hotel on 1st March. It is given each year to an inspirational industry leader who has made a significant and durable contribution to the real estate business and to the emerging Europe real estate investment sector. 

In its eighth year, CEEQA [CEE Real Estate Quality Awards] is the main industry awards and showcase annual event for the emerging Europe property sector. Organised by CEE Insight Forum in association with the Financial Times, a total of 18 awards are given each year to the best real estate projects, companies and industry professionals for outstanding business performance and achievement. The awards are judged by a panel of senior representatives of market leading companies and are widely regarded as the most important recognition of business excellence in the sector.

Following an early career in law, Carl Panattoni quickly established himself as a talented commercial real estate developer. In 1978 he helped form Panattoni, Oates and Massie Development Company. With an initial capitalization of $400k, over the next 8 years, Carl successfully developed more than 558k square metres of industrial and office real estate creating over $50m of net value for the ownership group. He also personally executed the largest developer-owned industrial tenant transaction in Northern California history at that time. 
Since establishing his own company in 1986, Panattoni has developed more than 14 million square metres of industrial and office space on both sides of the Atlantic and is one of the largest developers of build-to-suit warehousing in the United States. The company's entry into the emerging Europe market over the past five years has been robust and decisive. Quickly establishing itself as an important market presence in Poland, under the stewardship of regional director Robert Dobrzycki, the company has successfully followed a strategy of expanding into other central European markets while achieving the position of clear market leader in Poland, the region's most important market. 

In 2010 Panattoni Europe developed more than 233k square metres of new warehouse space, having altogether 300k square metres under development, with the lowest vacancy rate across all assets at less than 2%. The company has received numerous business awards for industrial real estate in 2009 and 2010 including last year's CEEQA awards for Industrial Development of the Year (Panattoni Park Myslowice) and Industry Professional of the Year (Robert Dobrzycki, Managing Partner Central & Eastern Europe). 

Today the Panattoni group of companies remain privately owned and employ more than 295 people in North America and Europe. 
Commenting on the award, Carl Panattoni said: 
"It is always an honor to receive positive and prestigious recognition from your peers. However, it is not a  recognition of one person's contribution but honors the entire organization, particularly our team in Central Europe. This region is an important and vibrant marketplace with a great deal of potential. We hope to continue to make a strong contribution here in the future." 
Founder and director of CEEQA, Richard Hallward, said: 
"The award is deserved recognition not just for the size of Mr. Panattoni's achievements in more than thirty five years in the sector, but the pace and manner in which they've been achieved. We are delighted that someone of his stature has accepted the award and agreed to attend this year's CEEQA Gala." 

Previous winners of the CEEQA Lifetime Achievement award are Eugene Golub (founder and President of Golub & Co and Quinlan Private Golub), David Mitzner (founder and President of Apollo Rida), Cor van Zadelhoff (founder of DTZ Zadelhoff), Sandor Demjan (founder and Chairman of TriGranit Development Corporation) John Cutts (founder and Chairman of Parkridge Holdings), Werner Otto (founder and Honorary Chairman of ECE Projektmanagement) and Eli Alroy (Chairman of Globe Trade Centre/GTC). 

In its eighth year the CEEQA Gala is one of the most important events on the European real estate calendar. This year's awards event was hosted for the fourth year running by leading Polish television presenter Monika Richardson, with extensive entertainment highlights. The event raised funds for the Bator Tabor Foundation.