Strong start to 2014

The first step was taken in December 2013, when it won an auction held by Wrocław University for a 0.5 ha plot. This year the company is to continue with the purchases. “We are planning to buy four office investment plots in 2014. At least one of these will be in Warsaw with three others in regional cities. We’re mainly looking at those cities where we are already present,” explained Katarzyna Zawodna, who was appointed president of the board of Skanska Property Poland on March 1st. “The decision to buy new land results from the strategy of the firm and is a natural element of its operations, the scale of which has greatly been expanded over the last few years. After the success of the last sales, we want to at least keep up with our recent tempo of operations and maintain the continuity of our offer of new space in great locations as well as respond to the demands of the market,” explains Katarzyna Zawodna.

Many leases signed
The company has signed the first agreements for the lease of office and retail space in the Kapelanka 42 centre in Kraków. The new office tenants are supermarket chain Tesco (2,500 sqm) and software developer Apriso (2,440 sqm), which is part of the Dassault Systèmes group. Local branches of Skanska Group will also occupy offices (1,200 sqm) in the complex. Additionally, Olimp Arena has leased 520 sqm for a canteen in the centre, which is now over 20 pct leased. Tesco was represented by Colliers International in the negotiations, while Apriso, which is to move in at the end of June, was represented by Hamilton May. Kapelanka 42 will be a modern class ‘A’ office complex comprising two nine-storey buildings with three underground levels. The total leasable area of the project, which is to be completed in Q3 2014, is around 30,000 sqm. Meanwhile, PwC is the first tenant to have signed a lease for space in the first building of Silesia Business Park in Katowice. The consultancy is to move into its new 6,800 sqm (55 pct of the available space) offices in November. The office park, situated on ul. Chorzowska, will eventually comprise 46,000 sqm of office space in four buildings as well as 600 parking spaces. The complex will also provide bike racks and showers for cyclists. Silesia Business Park, which has been designed by the Medusa Group architectural studio, is LEED pre-certified at the ‘Gold’ level. Skanska is the general contractor while Skanska Property Poland is the developer and has responsibility for the commercialisation of the centre. In addition, professional services firm Deloitte has leased 1,335 sqm in the Dominikański office building, which is currently under construction near pl. Dominikański in Wrocław city centre. Local branches of Skanska Group, the developer of the property, will also be occupying 2,400 sqm of the building. Deloitte, which was represented in the negotiation process by Knight Frank, will be moving into its new premises in October 2015, transferring from the Grunwaldzki Center office complex in the city, which was also developed by Skanska in 2009. Dominikański is the largest office project currently under construction in Wrocław and will offer 40,000 sqm gla of class ‘A’ space. It has been designed by Medusa Group and has been LEED ‘Gold’ pre-certified. Skanska Property Poland is in charge of the commercialisation process. The first stage of the project should be completed in Q2 2015.

And now for the Czech Republic
Skanska is to invest EUR 31 mln in the Corso Court office project in Prague’s Karlín district. The project, which has been designed by Casua and RBTA (Catalan architect Ricardo Bofill’s studio), will have a total leasable office area of around 17,000 sqm. The developer will be applying for LEED ‘Gold’ certification for the building. Among its sustainable solutions it is feature a high-performance façade, which allows greater daylight penetration. Construction work has now started and should be completed in Q3 2015. Corso Court forms part of the Corso Karlín urban complex. Corso IIA (13,000 sqm) was completed by Karlín Group in 2008, while the project for Corso IIB (17,000 sqm) was sold by the same developer to Skanska earlier this year. The Moravian branch of Skanska’s buildings division [divize Pozemní stavitelství, závod Morava] has signed a lease for 737 sqm in the Nordica Ostrava building in Ostrava. The division of the company is moving from its offices in Třinec to Ostrava. Nordica Ostrava, which was also developed by Skanska Property Czech Republic, is now 83 pct occupied. It offers 12,000 sqm of office space.