Demand for expansion comes less than one year after the US company signed a lease for 13,500 square meters in the United Business Center (UBC) 5 building part of the Palas complex in Iasi of businessman Iulian Dascalu. At an average rent of EUR12/square meter, the contract should amount to about EUR1.4 million to EUR1.5 million a year, ZF has calculated.
Amazon’s demand for more office space comes soon after the announcement of General Motors, which will open a 4,000 square meter call center in the Skanska-developed Green Court complex in Bucharest. IT companies accounted for 30% of the local office space market last year, says real estate consultant JLL.
The US retailer has already started recruiting in Bucharest, and some of those selected used to work for the software development center Intel had in the city, which is now downsizing, following a decision to withdraw from several small markets in Europe, including Romania, ZF has found. The move from Intel to the new Amazon office in Bucharest is confirmed by the information published on LinkedIn by some people who say they started working for the US retailer in Bucharest in November 2016 or January 2017 after having ended their Intel stint. All those who moved from Intel to Amazon are software engineers.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)