Articom.gov.pl?

Articom Center was to have been completed late last year. Why has it been delayed, since the building has not yet been officially opened?

- The building was to have been ready at the beginning of this year, and it actually was. Articom Center is ready. The General contractor Hydrobudowa-6 has already finished all work. The project will be officially presented to the market more or less in the first week of March when negotiations with a large potential tenant will have concluded. We hope to rent space to a Polish ministry.

Which ministry?

- I can't betray the identity of the ministry we are talking to, at the present most feverish stage of negotiations. It will be revealed in two weeks from now (the interview was held on the 19 February. According to an unofficial source it may be The Committee for European Integration - Editor)

How did you manage to reach such a rare and specific tenant? Did you cooperate with some real estate agent?

- No. We only used our own network of contacts. At the beginning, when we announced we were beginning work on the Articom Center project, our sole agent was Cushman & Wakefield H&B. Today, when the project will be revealed on the market it will be an open building which means any agent will be able to bring in tenants. I am no enthusiast of exclusive contracts, so when the Cushman & Wakefield H&B contract expired we did not extend it, though we have nothing at all against that company, of course.

What surface will you be leasing to the ministry?

- The whole building, that is around 6,300 sqm.

You are asking a rather high rent. What's going to happen if your negotiations collapse?

- We have three potential tenants. One of these could rent a surface of around 1,600 to 1,800 sqm, that is two storeys, while the second one is interested in renting 500 sqm and the third - 1,000 sqm. In a word, even should talks with the ministry come to nothing, we will have customers for more than 50 percent of space for rent.

What are your plans for Articom Center should the whole space be rented?

- We want to sell it, to finance other projects.

Also office buildings?

- No, since I feel there is too much empty office space in Warsaw. Admittedly, we are interested in acquiring a certain building plot on Litewska Street near our building, but the legal status is highly complex. However, should we succeed in purchasing it we would, indeed, erect an office building there. There can be no talk of further investments in this segment. What we intend to do is to focus on housing investments.