Tenants know best

For this year's Eurobuild Awards, Millward Brown - the market and opinion research institute that we work together with - surveyed the tenants of 55 office buildings, 33 shopping centres and 19 warehouses. This confidential poll was carried out between July and September 2012 in the form of phone and email interviews employing an assessment scale ranging from -5 (lack of satisfaction) to 5 (full satisfaction). Tenants were asked questions related to the location, working conditions in a given facility, the costs, the building management style, its appearance and architecture, as well as the general impression of how it functions.

First-class offices
As a result of the tenants' votes, the Eurobuild Awards statuette for the best office building went to Łódź-based developer Virako, for its Forum 76 Business Center building in Łódź. The seven-storey class ?A' office facility is located on one of the most important junctions in the city (al. Piłsudskiego and ul. Kopcińskiego). Forum 76 Business Center offers an office and service area of 7,000 sqm, as well as 100 parking spaces in a multi-storey car park. Tenants particularly appreciated Forum 76 in three categories: the location, working conditions and rents/fees/costs - awarding it a score of ?five' for its location. The facility also obtained very good marks (4.8) for convenience in everyday use, which includes: the lift waiting time, internal lighting, flexible floor layout, architecture and design. The building also scored well in the evaluation of its ratio of the rent level to the conditions, as well as in the convenience of using the facility (4.5). Moreover, its tenants favoured Forum 76 above other Łódź office buildings by stating that given another opportunity they would also rent space in this building. "An award that is based on the opinions of Forum 76 users is the most significant recognition we could receive - after all, they are the ones who know our building best. I am happy that the efforts which we make every day to create the best working conditions have been rated so highly. That is why I wish to thank all our partners who helped us achieve the best quality of services in Poland. It is also a clear sign for investors. Łódź offers a great climate for doing business and high quality, excellently managed office buildings where tenants feel good and can openly express this" - was the reaction of Krzysztof Witkowski, the president of the management board of Virako. What is different about this project? "Undoubtedly the greatest success of this project is its commercialisation level, in excess of 95 pct despite the difficult times. There are of course a number of other factors that have had an influence on this. The first is its excellent and recognisable location in the city and the fact that the project has been prepared with the end-user in mind from start to finish. Also the fact that it received the best marks in the Łódź province in the BREEAM In-Use certification process is significant for the project," adds Krzysztof Witkowski. The tenants include: Deloitte, Bank Zachodni WBK, Bank Millennium, Provident, Zuno Bank, Centralny Ośrodek Informatyki and Magellan. And how do the tenants evaluate the building? "The dynamic development of our company led us to require a larger office area. We were looking for a modern and functional place, which would provide favourable conditions to organise work effectively and would be friendly to Magellan's team of 120 employees. We also placed a lot of importance on having a good location - in the city centre, providing easy access between Łódź and its immediate area. Another important thing was the option we had to lay out the office space freely, which would allow us to develop its area optimally according to the size and specifics of individual departments of the company. Forum 76 fulfilled all our expectations. An additional asset of the building is the availability of conference halls, which can be used for the training sessions and events we organise. Another interesting feature is the terrace located on the fourth floor, which employees of the company can use during their breaks. It is also a unique, non-standard place for organising various events, such as Easter parties or the first day of spring," explains Krzysztof Kawalec, the president of the management board at Magellan. Interestingly, the survey provided users with the opportunity to comment on aspects of the offices' functionality that are important to them. The users of all the buildings surveyed emphasised the importance of special rooms for smokers, nursery schools in the facilities and waste segregation.

Arkadian idyll
To say that Arkadia is a leading shopping centre is no exaggeration. The Warsaw mall simply outclassed its competition. Its tenants rated it as the best mall in practically every aspect and its score exceeded the average achieved by all the facilities by half as much again. Arkadia received top marks for its tenant mix (4.76), its location and the availability of parking spaces (4.88), footfall (4.82), foodcourt offer (4.94), marketing and promotion (4.76) and management (4.94). Its tenants also appreciated the ratio of the rent level to the conditions, awarding it a mark of 4.82. The centre, owned by Unibail-Rodamco, has been operating on the market since 2004. It has a total area of 287,000 sqm, including a retail area of 110,000 sqm. Around 230 shops, retail and catering outlets operate in Arkadia, including Carrefour, Cinema City, Reserved, Zara, H&M, C&A, CCC, Deichmann, Aldo, Kazar, Douglas and Sephora. The mall has 4,300 parking spaces. It also has another reason to be proud. Given another opportunity its tenants would opt to stay in the centre without any hesitation. "According to the surveys that we regularly carry out, Arkadia is timeless. It has been the leader among Warsaw malls for many years, regarding its catchment area, the number of visitors - exceeding 21 mln per year - as well as the adjustment of its offer to the needs and expectations of its customers. It is also considered the favourite shopping centre in the capital city by the highest number of respondents. As the manager of Arkadia, Unibail-Rodamco puts particular emphasis on providing a broad selection for the whole family, both in terms of goods and services and the variety of marketing and communication activities. Arkadia is often the first as well as the flagship location for brands that are entering Poland - names that are globally recognised, popular and often prestigious, such as Gap, Foot Locker and American Eagle Outfitters," claims Anthony Vesin, the director of Arkadia. Confirmation of this comes from the tenants themselves. "Warsaw's Arkadia definitely deserves the title of the best shopping centre in Poland, which it received at the 2012 Eurobuild Awards. Besides, it is not the first but yet another distinction for Arkadia, which has been consistently working on its success. Its excellent system of tenant selection, which combines elegant boutiques with popular brands, its ability to acquire new, interesting brands that are only just making their debuts on the Polish market and - last but not least - its interesting and unique marketing activities, which are still carried out intensively despite its well-established and lofty position on the shopping centre market," explains Wojciech Normand, the vice-president of the management board of Deichmann-Obuwie. In their comments on the operation of the shopping centres, tenants suggested more parking spaces for employees, an improvement in the air-conditioning and providing public transport to the centre.

Prologis for the first time
At the last two Eurobuild Awards ceremonies, the best warehouse category according to tenants was won by Panattoni's facilities. This time Prologis cut its competitors down to size and won with its Prologis Park Sochaczew complex, which is a high storage logistics park including a railway siding. It is located on the E30 road from Warsaw to Berlin, 17 km away from the A2 motorway. The total warehouse and office area in its six buildings exceeds 100,000 sqm. The tenants of the facility are DHL, Empik, Pilkington Automotive and Procter & Gamble Operations. When choosing the best functioning facility, tenants focused on the rent levels, the building's location and its quality. In the first of these, Prologis Park Sochaczew came out on top with 3.6 points. It also scored well for its infrastructure and individual elements (4.8). The office areas available in the facility received the same score from its tenants. They also gave the warehouse high marks for its excellent security service (4.6) and working conditions (4.4). "Winning a prize which is awarded by the tenants means a lot to us because it is determined by the opinions of our clients. We have worked hard for the title of best warehouse in Poland. We have introduced a remote meter reading system, we have built a secure pedestrian crossing, and improved the road layout by placing traffic signs, as well as connecting up a gas supply to increase the savings by 25 to 30 pct," explains Roman Skowroński, the head of the CEE property management team at Prologis. A representative of DHL agrees that the distinction for the Sochaczew facility is well-deserved. "The location is the most important thing for me, as it is located on national road no. 2, just a few kilometres away from the newly-opened A2 motorway. This makes it possible to service clients in Warsaw efficiently and deliver goods to other regions in Poland. Access to a good and qualified workforce is also not without importance. There are not as many logistics parks here as, for example, in Błonie or Ożarów, so there is more manpower available. The park itself is well designed, it has a large number of parking and manoeuvre spaces, and the technical service of the buildings is impeccable. One slight drawback is the turn from the national road no. 2 to ul. Olimpijska - the junction is tight and it can get dangerous in certain situations," says Piotr Okurowski, the director and a board member of DHL Supply Chain. The general remarks on the functioning of the warehouses and the logistics park concerned the quick failure response, the large number of parking spaces, and the management's flexibility in their approach to tenants.

Hard work rewarded
Tenants are not only in a position to confirm the value of a developer's efforts, but are also perfectly positioned to assess the performance of the facility managers with which they work on an everyday basis. As a result, tenants know who is the best to work with and who maintains high standards in their relationships with clients. This year the managers who were honoured also represented the best facilities according to tenants. Picking up the statuettes were Karolina Tobiańska of Virako, who manages the Forum 76 building, and Anthony Vesin of Unibail-Rodamco, the director of Arkadia. According to Karolina Tobiańska, the most important thing is cooperation. "Good management is the consistent implementation of a predefined goal. The latest successes of Virako show that a superb product such as Forum 76 has to be matched by an equally good quality of service. Management is not an individual but a team game. If you listen to tenants, you will know what they expect. If you also work with a good team of people who are engaged in their work, you can be sure that tenants' expectations will be met," she claims. Meanwhile, Anthony Vesin modestly declares that success has many fathers. "The Eurobuild Awards prize in the best shopping centre category confirms our success and I am very happy about this. It is the joint achievement of the tenants who are present in our centre, all the employees of Arkadia, as well as the external companies which cooperate with us. I do not feel that I am the beneficiary of this success. Managing such a popular facility that fulfils its role well is indeed a source of satisfaction," concludes the director of the Arkadia shopping centre.

Aneta Cichla