Standing alone
Some companies, like PricewaterhouseCoopers, take up their 8,000 sqm as anchor tenants in buildings such as International Business Centre, where they'll have the strongest profile in that particular building. Their presence in Warsaw won't however be as visible as that of Hermes, who with the help of Colliers International, are on the look out for land to build their own office premises
"Having your own building is free advertising," says
Jerzy Wysocki of Knight Frank Nieruchomości, "and it also creates a number
of possibilities for the company to develop the building according to their
needs." This would certainly seem to apply to firms like Microsoft, who'll
be moving into Jerozolimskie Company House 2 later this year, but in the case of
PricewaterhouseCoopers, who Knight Frank represented in their deal to go to IBC,
their profile will have arguably been heightened by taking themselves from their
small company house on Nowogrodska 68, to a larger building where, though
they'll be the biggest, won't be the sole tenants. And Hermes' decision to go
for 'built to suit' premises isn't driven primarily by a need to draw attention
to itself.
High technology firms are often keen on exclusively controlling the building
they work from, because of the highly sophisticated equipment they use but now
in Poland, insurance companies are looking to do the same thing.
Now is the time
Hadley Dean of Colliers International suggests that both the tax breaks that
such firms enjoy, the fact that "construction costs are now rock bottom",
and the very good financial terms they can negotiate with banks, mean that it
"makes a lot of sense" for them to have their own building. Jerzy
Wysocki concurs, "the financial conditions of such transactions are very
attractive".
Hermes, which has till now been functioning in Poland as an agent for Allianz
Polska, is searching for a plot on which to build a new home, because in the
words of Marketing Manager Michał Szumski, "we are expanding very, very
quickly and we need more room". This follows quite a common pattern for the
firm, according to Szumski: "in each country we operate in, we start in
Allianz' premises, until we achieve a certain level of turnover".
The company is currently based in the Europlex mixed use centre, which is quite
central but they are looking at the possibility of moving to the suburbs,
perhaps Mokotów. It's not vital for Hermes to be based in the city centre
because says Szumski, "our product doesn't need to be displayed".
Their prime concern is to be located near business centres where many of their
clients are stationed and the 5-6,000 sqm building they'll eventually have,
might also have space to spare for other companies to lease.
