On the offensive from Kielce

Echo Investment are getting their teeth into the office space market. Michał Sołowow\'s company holds sites for new developments throughout Poland in the near future

The Warsaw borough of Mokotów is generating the greatest interest as an office district, which is why Echo Investment are now getting in on the act. In 2005 the Wan-11 company, in which Echo Investment holds half of the shares, commissioned a 20,400 sqm building on ul. Postępu. And this is not all, with an Echo-owned plot waiting at the intersection of ul. Domaniewska and ul. Postępu. It is not yet known when construction work will get underway. According to Waldemar Lesiak, director of Echo Investment\'s Office Projects Department, the Wola and Żoliborz districts rank as highly as Mokotów on the list of Warsaw\'s best office locations. Echo already has one project - Athina Park - in Zoliborz on Wybrzeże Gdyńskie, a complex made up of 4 buildings with a total useable space of 14,000 sqm. This is a niche project at a place near the Vistula River where no modern office building has ever been built. Waldemar Lesiak stresses that: "This place has great potential, which is confirmed by the market clearly giving the thumbs up to our project, and should the opportunity arise, we shall definitely continue to develop in this locality."

A good idea for Poznań and Kraków
To put down roots in the Poznań office market, Echo Investment plan to develop a business park comprising 7 buildings with a total area of 20,000 sqm. Echo Investment has already made its name in Poznań with the Małe Naramowice and Nad Wart± estates, as well as the Ibis hotel. This new complex will be near Lake Malta. Waldemar Lesiak tells us: "We have already been given the site development conditions (WZiZT) for the land and now are waiting for the building licence to be granted. Should everything go according to plan, construction of the first two buildings (6,000 sqm) will begin this summer and be completed after 12 months.
The Kielce-based company has almost identical concrete plans for Kraków. The developer already owns an office building on ul. Lea (3,600 sqm), but which is now a little past its sell by date. Luckily, the site on which it stands is large enough for yet another building. Waldemar Lesiak tells us that would be around 10 to 12,000 sqm, with construction starting once Echo has signed contracts for 30 to 40 pct of the rentable space.

Queuing up for Wroclaw
Lots of developers are now making their way to Wroclaw, where there is presently very little modern office space available. The Echo Investment official we spoke to stated that: "We also would like to participate in this boom, but the trouble is that we have not yet purchased a plot and the best ones have been snapped up by the competition, such as Ghelamco and Skanska.
Echo Investment\'s specialists are convinced that ŁódĽ and Katowice are also suffering from a lack of office space and, therefore, constitute a tantalising location for new projects. All that needs to be done is to purchase land in a good location, draw up the design, obtain the necessary licences and start the construction. And this is the goal that the Kielce-based developer has set itself.

Looking abroad
When Kielce is concerned, Echo Investment\'s plans are more specific. This is where it will develop a small business park for the needs of its own capital group, with the construction of the 20,000 sqm complex to start in the Q2 of 2006 and scheduled for completion after 12 months.
The developer is, admittedly, operating in Poland, but its investment team is increasingly researching the potential of the Ukrainian, Bulgarian and Romanian markets.

Magda Konstantynowicz