Few investors have bet on the office segment in the past few years, and they tended to be foreign investors, such as GTC and Portland Trust, with extensive expertise on a market where rents have fallen by 20 to 40% in the last three years.
But with the vacancy rate of offices falling towards 12%, new projects start to emerge again.
Remus Capota, an investor who was involved in the development of office building Cubic Center in Pipera (Northern Bucharest), currently part of the portfolio of businessman Dinu Patriciu, has built the six-floor structure of Barbu Vacarescu Office in the last few months, located on Bucharest’s Barbu Vacarescu Boulevard. This street is potentially turning into a “banking district”, considering that banks such as Volksbank, Banca Romaneasca, RBS, Raiffeisen and Banca Italo-Romena have or are set to move into buildings in the area. The project, developed by Remus Capota and Doru Botez in a 50-50 partnership, will provide 2,000 square meters of office space.
The building is scheduled for completion towards the end of this year, but representatives of the developer did not provide the names of the future tenants, while Remus Capota could not be contacted by edition close.
Another office building in Piata Charles de Gaulle square is also at structure stage. It is being built by Monolit Square. The company is part of the Monolit Development group, controlled by businessman Dragos Dobrescu, according to market sources.
Dobrescu is also a very low-profile businessman, who does not feature as a direct shareholder in any Romanian-based company. Monolit Square is held through Chandler Commercial Inc, registered in Panama, and the project in Piata Charles de Gaulle square is built on a 600 square-meter plot bought in 2010 for EUR1.5 million.
Around one hundred meters away from the Monolit construction site, on Aviatorilor Boulevard, businessman Radu Dimofte, known as a business partner of Gabriel Popoviciu, has recently started construction of an office building. Dimofte is constructing a five-floor building next to the building that accommodates Leumi bank. In this project, he partners with Marioara Crestin and Ileana-Viorica Crestin. The businessman awarded the construction contract to Bog’Art, controlled by Raul Doicescu, with one of the prospective tenants being Leumi bank, which could relocate some of its employees from Piata Victoriei Square to this building.
(English version by Daniela Stoican, editing by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)