Long road to a strong identity

This stretch of the capital city has been transformed from wasteland to a magnet for some of the world's most renowned firms, in just over eight years. From where Plac Zaswiszy unravels to run away from the CBD, to where Jerozolimskie crosses Łopuszańska, office development in this part of Warsaw, could soon begin to rival that of the city centre. Not that every building there is brimming with tenants

"When we arrived in 1996, we had to walk around in the mud, as there weren't even pavements," says Kamila Zębik of WeCare, Liebrecht and wooD, one of the main developers along this route, with the Batory Building and Kopernik Office Buildings. "When we started construction in 1994 there was nothing but fields," confirms Andrzej Mikołajczyk of the Mahler Project, developers of the first multi-tenant complex to arrive on this particular scene, Ochota Office Park.

New high-tech phase
These days, construction workers from Warbud, busy building Jerozolimskie Company House 2, TK Polska Operations' development which will house Microsoft's new Polish headquarters late next year, and those from CFE Polska adding to the existing two, (the first of which is home to ComputerLand), out of a planned five Kopernik Office Buildings, can now be seen introducing the next phase of development to this part of the avenue. Both projects exemplify what some see is the area's increasing appeal for high technology companies.
The reasons given for the Microsoft move have been that it was seeking, said Mark Krajewski of TKD, "a strong identity outside the CBD", which it will get in its own company house on the roadside of perhaps Warsaw's main artery, that the developer were "extremely flexible in their approach", according to Jason Sharman of Jones Lang LaSalle, and that it is simply "consistent with the Microsoft Corporation's policy to locate offices outside city centres," in the words of Microsoft Poland's PR Manager, Monika Kretowicz. ComputerLand, whose employees moved to the Kopernik building in June 2001 to become sole tenants, explained then that it was doing so because previously they had been operating from five offices and wanted everyone to "work together" under one roof. Just across the road from where Jerozolimskie Company House 2 is, ComputerLand can also lay claim to that same "strong identity outside the CBD", as can Philips in Jerozolimskie Company House One, just a little further away from its sibling under construction.

Building a home
The mobile telephone providers PTC (Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa) Era, founded in 1996, became sole tenants of Ochota Office Park 3 in 1999 after rapid growth in their market meant they had to go on the look out for new office space. By 1997 they were occupying offices in seven different locations, something which raised "logistics issues", according to Ryszard Pospieszyński, PTC Era's Director of Administration. At that time, unlike now, there was a shortage of space and rents were high in Warsaw. PTC Era, wanting to establish themselves in a building on a long-term basis, eventually caught onto the idea of basing themselves outside the CBD. "Ochota Office Park was situated on a plot where there existed the possibility to expand," says Pospieszyński. Lower rents there were also a factor.
The situation PTC Era are in now, is unique believes Pospieszyński. "A lot of other companies move office every few years but as we have to install special equipment, doing this would prove very expensive." That's only one reason why they signed a twelve-year lease agreement with OOP's developer Mahler Project. Another was that there on Jerozolimskie, they could build a real home, "we can grow together with our space," says Pospieszyński, adding that if business booms again in the next few years, they have an understanding with MP that a fourth Ochota Office Park building can be constructed. "We won't have to look around Warsaw," he says.

Gridlock on the road...
The one misgiving Ryszard Pospieszyński has about the Ochota part of Jerozolimskie is the traffic, which, as anyone who has to travel down there knows, can be nightmarish and hasn't been easy to negotiate for the best part of a year. The PTC board member does stress that the situation is temporary.
Robert Karniewski of Colliers International agrees that commuting difficulties are "the worst thing about Jerozolimskie" and would even go so far as to state that some people "hate" the area for that very reason. In his opinion the gridlock is precisely why one of the streets most recent additions, the Mistral building, developed by the Austrian firm Karimpol, stands empty a whole year and a half after completion.

...and empty offices nearby
"We are contributing to the Warsaw vacancy rate with this building," is how Harald Jeschek, MD of Karimpol, puts it. Perched near the bridge which carries the road over the railway, the Mistral building's ghostly interior is accentuated by its isolation from other Jerozolimskie buildings. One of these is the Taifun Building, also developed by Karimpol, whose 6,500 sqm is fully-leased to the Polish telecommunications firm Tel-Energo.
Mistral's isolation was never the intention however, and was planned as the first of a three-building Warsaw Business Technology Park, the rest of which was earmarked for development once Mistral was 50% leased. Since this hasn't happened, the building will have to endure its solitude for some time yet. In such an apparently dynamic area for office development, why can't one of its most prominent buildings find a tenant?

All in the timing
Harald Jeschek acknowledges the traffic problem, though he also believes it is temporary and gives the standard explanation that Poland's recent economic difficulties have deterred firms from leasing space in Mistral. "We were close to getting Microsoft," he adds, but didn't because "they didn't need the building right now, they needed it in a year." All Microsoft would say is that they "considered a variety of options and discussed the issue at length" before choosing Jerozolimskie Company House 2 as their new home.
Other experts have suggested that timing was a crucial factor in inhibiting Mistral's progress, that it was delivered just as Poland was slipping into recession. The marketing strategy, the strength of the competition nearby and its lower rents have also been proffered as reasons for the emptiness. Karimpol claim that their building is designed for just those 'high-tech' companies that have leased space elsewhere on Jerozolimskie and that the 12,164 sqm of space is ideal for five or six tenants. In Mistral however, they are not promised that "strong identity" outside the CBD.

Losing that traffic
The Jerozolimskie 'corridor', with the airport to the south and CBD to the west theoretically just brisk drives away, no doubt has contributed to the area's speedy growth but this could quite clearly come to a halt, if its commuters are continually brought to a standstill.
Major disruption was caused by work on the road where it bridges the railway, in April last year, (it was completed early December). However, Harald Jeschek points out that the need for these repairs "triggered funding" to address the road's general traffic problems which he says was "five years overdue". Now, further up towards the centre, Warbud are constructing a flyover, which when it is complete in November 2003, should loosen up the traffic considerably, though of course for now the work is holding it up once more, as is the tunnel being built nearby to give motorists access to the Blue City retail centre when it arrives. The heavy traffic "has nothing to do with the street itself," says Kamila Zębik.