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.