The latest move that confirms the potential of the area is the securing of a construction permit by Vastint Romania, the real estate arm of the Inter IKEA group, for its second project in Romania, which will consist of three office buildings.
After starting construction on a project on the former Timpuri Noi industrial site in Bucharest, Vastint wants to start work on the plot of land in the Orhideea area, which it bought from construction materials manufacturer Baduc in 2011. The office complex near the Basarab Overpass on Calea Plevnei will be called Business Garden and consist of three buildings with a lettable area of 41,000 square meters of office and retail space. Construction of the first building should start early next year, and the developer is now in the process of selecting a contractor for the job.
Vastint’s announcement comes only months after two other real estate investors decided to capitalize on the potential of the area. Austria’s CA Immo started construction on the Orhideea Towers office buildings on the former site of the industrial bakery Spicul this year, where it will invest EUR75 million. On another plot of the same site, Romanian-held developer Forte Partners announced it would begin construction of The Bridge, which will comprise two office buildings and require a EUR85 million investment, next year. Orhideea Towers and The Bridge will add more than 90,000 square meters to the office space stock in Bucharest.
A number of real estate industry insiders have recently said the Orhideea area in particular and the central-western Bucharest in general are shaping up into a future office space hub as an alternative to the much more crowded Barbu Vacarescu-Floreasca- Dimitrie Pompeiu. The three projects Vastint, CA Immo and Forte Partners announced are among the first moves that confirm investor and real estate developers’ interest in this part of the city along with the recent move by Sweden’s Skanska, which bought a plot on the former site of the Pumac plant for an office space project.
Vastint, CA Immo and Forte Partners’ projects in the Orhideea area will have a lettable area of 130,000 square meters, which can accommodate about 13,000 people, if allocating about 10 square meters per person.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)