Office space owners in Bucharest had a better 2014, thanks to a higher interest for space rentals. Ten projects stood out and managed to sign new contracts with about 50 companies that rented 138,400 square meters, which can accommodate some 15,000 employees, according to a ZF analysis.
The project that rented the biggest floor area to new tenants is Globalworth Campus in Pipera. Telekom group signed the biggest lease on the office space market for 25,000 square meters there, which it will occupy as of 2016, when the first building of the new business park is due for completion.
Skanska’s Green Court, too, attracted tenants for 20,000 square meters. The first investment in Romania of the Swedish group got Orange, Schneider Electric, Sanofi and Adecco to sign leases.
Next in the ranking are Hermes Business Campus in Pipera and Bucharest One on Calea Floreasca, each of which having rented 18,500 square meters of office space.
The owners of Sky Tower, too, attracted new tenants for 16,000 square meters (15 floors), which took the occupancy rate of the 36-story tower to 60%.
“We set out to have the office space in Sky Tower fully rented by mid this year,” said Ruxandra Grinzeanu, managing director of Raiffeisen Property Romania, Sky Tower’s owner.
The companies renting space in Sky Tower include IT company 1&1 Internet Development, PeliFilip law firm and debt collector APS Holding, which rented two floors.
A rather unusual deal signed last year was the rental of about 8,000 square meters by the weight loss surgery hospital Ponderas, which put Art Business Center on the list of the most sought-after office buildings. Another major tenant in that building is Intesa San Paolo Bank, which leased 3,500 square meters.
Out of the older office buildings, NEPI’s Floreasca Business Park attracted ten new tenants for the 7,900 square meters vacated by Oracle, Honeywell and PeliFilip.
Some tenants that stayed in Floreasca Business Park either expanded or gave up some of the space they had been using, so basically the project take-up rate is now almost 98%, said Lori Colin, NEPI’s official in charge of office space rental.
The other three office projects among the top ten are three new projects: Ethos House, Floreasca Park and AFI Business Park, which found new tenants for 6,000 to 7,000 square meters, so they are now partly rented.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)