Tour de Cracovie

It was raining in Kraków when I arrived. I had an appointment in the Galileo office building with my guide Rafał Oprocha of CB Richard Ellis. I was to wait for him in the lobby but a look through the window of the ground floor canteen made me decide to have an early lunch. The first point scored by Kraków: you can have a better meal in the city's office buildings at a much lower price than in Warsaw. Rafał Oprocha admitted, with a smile, that the price of a Kraków lunch would not always buy you a coffee in Warsaw. And as a native citizen of Kraków he knows what he is talking about since he worked in Warsaw for several years.

(Not) Central Business District

The Galileo office building, from which I began my Kraków excursion, was constructed by Globe Trade Centre, with some 30 percent of its available 10,000 sqm office space being occupied. The asking rent is 16 dollars/sqm. Further GTC office investments in Kraków depend on progress in renting space in this building. Existing plans are to construct two similar properties (along Armii Krajowej Ave.) on neighbouring sites and one smaller building of around 5,000 sqm. There are a number of other buildings in this district, occupied mainly by companies in the modern technologies sector. The Solidex computer company has a building next to Galileo. The Mercedes Complex head office of Sobiesław Zasada's company is also nearby. Apart from the offices of the building's owner, CH2Mhill and the Nordea Polska bank also operate within this six-storey property. Rafał Oprocha thinks the series of buildings along Armii Krajowej Ave. is one of four areas, next to Wadowicka Street, the surroundings of the railway station together with Mogilskie and Grzegórzeckie roundabouts and Zabierzów village, where the majority of office space already is or will be.

Modern fire brigade

As we moved along Armii Krajowej Ave. towards the exit road to Katowice, my guide announced that the Ahold retail giant has its head office nearby. A carefully designed building was visible a short way ahead so I asked - "Is that it?". No, Rafał Oprocha told me, that's the fire brigade. Ahold has its offices in a property owned by KCI, pointing to an old office building with a signboard of the Krakowska Fabryka Aparatury Pomiarowej. The rent in such buildings is around 35 zlotys/sqm. The fire brigade building looks definitely more imposing. We approached Euromarket after passing by the unfinished structure of an office building on which work was put on hold until better times come along. Euromarket is 70 percent leased by such companies as Fortis Bank, BP Poland, CanPack and SAAB, and is the first office building outside Warsaw to be sold to a western investment fund. It was purchased by Zentral Immobilien Fonds, belonging to the HypoVereinsbank group.

Traveling fast

We moved along a bit and left Kraków towards Zabierzów where the Kraków Business Park is located. Only one building has been developed there so far, within the complex which is to comprise 10 buildings, according to the developer. Fifty percent of the space in this KBP-100 building has been leased by The Polished Group, a Prokom Software group company, Warta, Savan and Business Center Solutions. Though we, theoretically, had left Kraków, it took no more than 15 minutes to get from the centre. Rafał Oprocha stressed that untroubled traffic is one of the city's major merits, the southern circular road reducing the time required to drive from one end of the city to another to 45 minutes.

Anczyc the printer and the Swedes

We returned to Kraków through the ERE-owned Zakopianka shopping centre, presently being expanded. Buma Square, a retail and office building with a target space of 35,000 sqm is somewhat nearer the city centre. The buildings which once held the historical Anczyc printing house are today occupied by Emitel (a TP S.A. group company), Parasoft and Tesco's whole bookkeeping department, among others. The office space is classified into "better" (on the street) costing between 11 and 14 euro/sqm, and "worse" the rent for which is between 8 and 12 euro/sqm. It was impossible not to notice, as we drove towards the centre, the Bank BPH head office in Pokoju Ave. in one of the city's tallest buildings. This bank, the largest in the whole region, rents 13,500 sqm from the Swed Prop company which manages an IKEA properties, among others. A much smaller building of only 4,000 sqm but of much more attractive architecture is situated nearby the Kraków office of Citibank Handlowy.

The immediate centre

Office space in the city's immediate centre is available mainly in restored buildings, in which the rent is usually around 10 euro/sqm, though the offered space is, understandably, of not great efficiency. Higher rent is demanded in modern office buildings which, however, offer offices of much greater flexibility including the Lubicz Office Centre constructed by Mostostal Export. This centre on Lubicz Street is of 12,600 sqm space, of which around a half is occupied by such tenants as Cap Gemini, PricewaterhouseCoopers, PZU Życie and Prumerica Financial. The Lubicz Office Centre has been put up for sale. "Nowa Kamienica" is under construction nearby at Rakowicka Street by the GD&K development company. This seven-storey building with around 3,500 sqm office space is of modern architecture, though fitting well into its surroundings. Three storeys have already been rented, the remaining space waiting for tenants ready to pay 14.45 euro/sqm, with an additional 2 euro/sqm operating costs. This investment is being continued after a substantial shakeup in the structure of the investor's equity.

Panoramic view of the Tatra Mountains

Messrs. Herliczka, Bełdowski and Wołoszyński would have found it hard to believe, when they launched their Herbewo firm producing cigarette tubes and papers in the early 20th century, that their company would be one of the most dynamic Kraków developers some ninety years later. Today Herbewo owns seven tenement houses refurbished as office objects. Nowe Herbewo, a class A, six-storey office building built from scratch, standing on Lubelska Street, offers tenants around 1,800 sqm office space. Original, distinguishing features are the hand-painted stained glass windows and the city's first ceramic elevation, while the entertainment which takes place on the building's crowning terrace is something all Kraków talks about with envious admiration. Rafał Oprocha, my cicerone, claims that an evening spent in a place which gives an astounding view of the Tatra Mountains, is the heartfelt desire of each and every Kraków citizen.