Vodafone, a company with revenue of around EUR800 million per year and around 3,300 employees in Romania, and the discreet Greek businessman have supposedly reached an agreement on the rental of a 16,000-sqm space in the Bucharest One project, sources from the real estate and telecom markets told ZF.
It would be the most important deal on the Bucharest office market so far this year.
Vodafone is currently headquartered in the Charles de Gaulle Plaza building near Herastrau and holds two services centers in Pipera and Avrig street near Obor Square, respectively.
Starting the second half of next year, the company’s operations are likely to be moved in the 23-floor tower near Promenada mall, a project set to be built by Bog’Art building company, controlled by local businessman Raul Doicescu.
Neither the representatives of Vodafone, nor those of Globalworth, the investment fund through which Ioannis Papalekas started managing his real estate portfolio last year, commented on the information.
Barbu Vacarescu-Floreasca, the area where Papalekas will build the Bucharest One project, is the hottest in terms of real estate development, and companies such as Oracle, Raiffeisen, PwC, Ursus or Schneider Electric chose to set up their headquarters in the office buildings developed here.
The push to make operations more efficient and the falling office market rents in recent years have driven most large companies to bring all their operations in a single headquarters and Vodafone’s move seems to be part of the same tendency.
For Papalekas, the agreement with Vodafone is the fourth major step in the development of Bucharest One, a project set to become the second tallest office building in Bucharest, after Sky Tower.
To start such a project, with a built area of 46,000 square meters, Papalekas needed a contract guaranteeing that a significant part of the future tower is filled, and Vodafone is one of the few companies in Bucharest seeking a space of over 10,000 square meters.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)