Employees who currently work within office building Bucharest Corporate Center, in the Buzesti area, are about to be relocated to The Bridge. Forte Partners and IBM Romania representatives declined to comment on the information.
Thus, the 36,000 sqm of office space will be divided between lender BCR and IBM, and the office space on the ground floor has already been leased to a restaurant. The Bridge is the first office building in the Orhideea area, which is due to be completed in September 2017.
Leasing 18,000 sqm within The Bridge is the biggest expansion of the U.S. giant company, after leasing almost fully, in the summer of 2013, two office buildings in Bucharest – Bucharest Corporate Center and Global Business Center, respectively. Both buildings currently are included in the portfolio of Austrian group Immofinanz.
IBM’s central headquarters is located in a third office building – Bucharest Business Park, in the area of the Free Press Square.
The deal with IBM would be the third sealed by Forte Partners for the first phase of The Bridge, after that with BCR whereby the lender contracted 18,000 sqm and that with entrepreneur Radu Stoica who owns Boutique du Pain and who contracted over 1,000 sqm on the ground floor of the building in order to open the biggest restaurant within an office building in Bucharest, called Boutique Food Hall.
Overall, Forte Partners has EUR200 million at disposal to finalize office project The Bridge and start the residential project. By comparison, the first building of the project, which covers 36,000 sqm of office space, required investments of EUR60 million. Forte Partners expects the second building, which will have a lettable area of 45,000 sqm, to engulf EUR45 million, which frees over EUR100 million for investments in the residential project, which also include the acquisition of the plot of land.
The second phase of The Bridge, which includes a building of 20,000 sqm, sets off in March.