U.S. investors are pursuing Poland's retail real estate market, which has seen a lot of activity lately in shopping center development, especially from large international food retailers such as France's Casino and Germany's Metro Group.

GE Commercial Finance Real Estate recently acquired a 6,800-square meter shopping center in Krakow from Casino, and they're interested in adding more to their portfolio. "Poland is our most important market in Central and Eastern Europe because of its size," said GE's managing director for Central Europe. "We're interested in acquiring and developing retail, office, and logistics assets. We've invested 110 million euros, which equates to 500 million euros in assets, in Poland in the past three years. Our objective for 2005 is to invest 100 million euros of equity, or 400 million euros when leveraged."