The massive and highly-anticipated Lavina Mall in Kiev, Ukraine was recently named Retail Project of the Year by the Eastern European and Asia Real Estate Forum and Project Awards.

The Eastern European and Asia Real Estate Forum and Project Awards is an annual event hosted by the Ukrainian Real Estate Club and Europaproperty.com. The event has been known as the market benchmark for real estate success in Eastern Europe and Asia and is the only commercial real estate event cover Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Ukraine. This year, more than 250 real estate market leaders in the region convened in Kyiv, Ukraine and enjoyed discussion panels and presentations focused on investment and development opportunities.

Spanning over two days, the 2016 EEA Real Estate Forum and Project awards featured over 15 guests speakers and recognized 11 of the year’s best real estate projects in the region. Award categories ranged in focus from best hotel and residential complex to best renovation and innovation project in 2016. Among the many award recipients was the Lavina Mall, the official winner of the event’s 2016 Retail Project of the Year Award.

As the region’s largest entertainment center, the Lavina Mall is unlike any other retail project. In additional to 500 retail stores, the Lavina Mall also offers guests an amusement park, water park, cinema and over 50 restaurants to choose from. Coming in at a staggering 1.8 million square feet, the Lavina Mall is expected to yield 100,000 visitors a day.

Lavina Mall’s official leasing agent, NAI Ukraine played an instrumental role in the project’s success. By July 2016, occupancy under contract was already at 60%. As the Ukrainian representative network of NAI Global, NAI Ukraine offers a series of real estate services ranging in investment brokerage to development.

NAI Global, a global network of owner-operated commercial real estate brokerage firms, was recently acquired by C-III Partners, a commercial real estate capital markets firm. Under the leadership and guidance of C-III’s CEO and founder, Andrew Farkas, the acquisition of NAI Global was successfully completed in January 2016.