Renault now carries out its Bucharest activities in two headquarters of Pipera and Militari, namely North Gate building developed by entrepreneur Marius Ivan and West Gate business park of businessman Liviu Tudor. Between the two projects there is a distance of around 15 km that can be covered in around one hour.
“Renault and Dacia have almost 2,000 employees in Bucharest, particularly from the teams of Renault Technologie Roumanie (engineering), Renault Commercial Roumanie (sales) and offshore services, located in two main headquarters in the city’s northern and western areas. At present, we’re considering the possibility of regrouping these teams to a single headquarters, but it’s too early for details,” state Renault group representatives.
According to real estate market information, the group is already seeking an office space of around 20,000 square meters, with one of the mulled options being that of renting a building likely to be developed by businessman Ion Radulea on Semanatoarea sites.
Radulea already raised two buildings on the former industrial platform with an overall office area of around 46,000 square meters, which he sold for over EUR100 million to Austria’s Europolis.
Subsequently, Radulea wanted to add a new building to the project, constructing part of its foundation, but he has frozen the project on banks’ low lending appetite. Pre-renting a 20,000-sqm space through a contract securing rent income of around EUR3 million per annum at an average price of EUR12-13/sqm monthly would be quite a solid argument for him to start such an investment.
Conditions on Bucharest’s office market have improved in the past 12 months, but the market is not “healthy”, according to some developers, as most owners compete for existent tenants offering ever more favorable conditions as current demand cannot cover the existent stock of around 2.1 million square meters.
Renault is one of the most important groups in Romania considering the overall revenue generated by the Automobile Dacia, Renault Technologie Roumanie, Renault Commercial Roumanie and Renault Mecanique Roumanie neared EUR4.8 billion in 2013 and the total number of employees tops 16,500.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)