Common or garden?

Research has been showing that planting trees is one of the simplest ways to increase the value of a property. According to a report commissioned by the city of Brisbane in Australia, a tree-lined street can increase the value of neighbouring houses by 5.4 pct. Another report (by New York-based non-profit organisation the Natural Resources Defence Council) states that the development of an area around an office building increases rents by app. 7 pct. Even though similar estimates are complicated and most probably carry a significant risk of error, there is no doubt that there is a connection between the surroundings and the value of the property. Developers themselves have different approaches in this respect. On the one hand we have facilities that occupy their entire plot and do not leave any room for public space, while there are also projects that admittedly have such room, but are developed with the least effort and cost possible. However, on the other hand, we also have projects in which considerable effort and funds have been invested in developing the immediate area.

There has clearly been no shortage of sizeable projects recently. “Certainly much has changed. Fifteen or twenty years ago, developers’ investment in public space was limited to the laying of paving stones and planting some junipers or spruces. As much as this sort of development has a great deal of room for improvement in the scale of cities, there are more and more projects from private investors that reflect their involvement in creating top quality urban space,” believes Krzysztof Mróz, the owner of Stary Sącz-based firm Park M, which specialises in landscaping, gardens and public space development. Apart from large projects carried out under public procurement contracts, such as the restoration of the Upper Garden of the Royal Castle in Warsaw or the re-construction of pl. Grunwaldzki in Wrocław, the company also has some contracts with private investors under its belt. These include the construction of the green roof of the Tarasy Zamkowe shopping centre in Lublin for Immofinanz Group. Users of the centre will be able to relax in the summer on the benches of the Lublin project, among willows, birches and lilacs. “It was a particularly difficult project due to the dense greenery required on the steep slopes of the roof, amounting to 30˚ in some places. This needed an original approach to prevent the sliding of the 30 cm soil surface,” stresses Piotr Wojnarowski from Park M. However, this is one of the first shopping centres in Europe to have received a green BREEAM certificate at the ‘Excellent’ level. How will this affect financial issues? “In the case of Tarasy Zamkowe, the green garden should have a positive impact on the footfall and thus boost the turnover of the centre. Furthermore, the mall is an excellent location, near the Old Town, with a picturesque view from the roof. Enriching this location with a concept featuring such green aspects, including the certification, should guarantees the success of the development,” believes Małgorzata Żótowska, the director of the CEE valuation department at JLL.

Green fashion in Warsaw

One of the most interesting commercial projects featuring public space currently under construction is located in Warsaw. Plac Europejski is being developed by Ghelamco as part of the Warsaw Spire office complex. It stretches between one of the tallest skyscrapers in the city (the 220m main tower of the complex and two nearby 55m buildings) and the Hilton hotel. The square will be free of car traffic and will be open to the general public of Warsaw. “We will return a 1.4 ha quarter, between ul. Wronia, ul. Towarowa, ul. Grzybowska and ul. Łucka, to Warsaw’s citizens. According to historians of the city, the square is the largest urban project of its kind in the centre of Warsaw since the reconstruction era following the war,” says Jarosław Zagórski, the commercial and development director of Ghelamco Poland, the owner of the area and the developer of the project. Since the beginning of the project, the developer has treated the square as a priority. “Our intention was to treat Plac Europejski as a separate project that requires a separate architectural studio specialising in public space design and not just building design. We also sought out a company with appropriate experience for this scale and class of project,” the representative of Ghelamco tells us about the beginnings of the work on Plac Europejski. Eventually the company chose the Wirtz International Landscape Architects studio of Belgium, which specialises in landscaping. The studio was responsible for the design of landscape architecture around the Louvre and Canary Wharf, but this is its first project in Poland.

The square has been designed to include a series of fountains as well as 140 trees, mostly metasequoias and honey locust. “We used yellow leaf species in order to add colour and liven up the atmosphere. The light filters through the crowns of metasequoias, which is important here because the square is located near a 220m skyscraper and is also surrounded by two other buildings. This is also partly why the design includes fountains, which will reflect the sky and liven up the area,” explains the architect of the project, Peter Wirtz. According to visualisations published by the developer, the square will be virtually grassless – the idea that grassed areas would become saturated with water and difficult to maintain. More importantly, it is not a park but a city square. “It is our feeling that grass and flowers do not harmonise with such a modern building. We considered stone, gravel and trees to be more suitable materials,” says Peter Wirtz. The representative of Ghelamco also explains that the main goal is to attract people to the square. “Plac Europejski will include restaurants, cafés, outdoor exhibitions and other attractions to generate a unique atmosphere for the place. We hope that it will not just attract office workers after hours but also all the inhabitants of Warsaw,” says Jarosław Zagórski.

Meanwhile, Xcity Investment is planning to introduce greenery to the area around Warsaw’s Central Station. Around 0.4 ha sqm of lawns are to be introduced as well as some trees and bushes – as part of the Centralna Park development at the junction of Al. Jerozolimskie and al. Jana Pawła II. The project involves the construction of five buildings, including a 200m skyscraper. The green areas around the buildings are to be publicly accessible. “It will be a place that will allow Warsaw’s residents to find some peace, which is so vital in the city centre. The area will be separated from the noise of the city by sound screens, but it will be accessible to all members of the public at the same time. It will also provide office staff with the option of working outdoors,” says Bogdan Polak, the senior project manager at Sud Architekt Polska, which is responsible for the design of the complex. So far the project is still at the concept stage. Details about, for example, the choice of the greenery are to be prepared by a landscape architect, which has yet to be been selected.

Warsaw seems to be blazing a trail when it comes to projects of this nature. The Port Praski development – with a residential estate, office buildings, a shopping centre and public utility buildings – is to be developed on the site of the revitalised harbour on the Praga district side of the Vistula, in a similar project to HafenCity in Hamburg. The huge development area of 38 ha, accompanied by new commercial space of almost 400,000 sqm as well as 400,000 sqm of residential space only two underground stops from the Nowy Świat boulevard in the city centre, undoubtedly makes the project one of the most interesting schemes of any kind in recent years. As well as the buildings and the marina, its architectural plan, which has been drawn up by the APA Wojciechowski and JEMS Architekci studios, involves the development of new promenades for the harbour, a number of squares, floating restaurants and cafés. A park is also to be built with a cycle path, a skate park, a rope park and a roller-coaster. The investor is also the owner of 5 ha of wooded area and landscape protected by a conservation order. “We will restore the paths and we will return the areas to the local people. The park has been open to Warsaw’s population in the past,” reveals Adam Pykel, the president of the board of Port Praski Inwestycje. But can all the expenditure by the private investor in developing a huge urban area so close to the heart of the city have any chance of paying for itself? The head of Port Praski Inwestycje does not seem to be worried about this. “We will manage the project ourselves. We are not planning to sell any of the commercial space we are developing. Thus our approach to this public space is different. We accept that you cannot make money out of everything and we are building the city from scratch,” explains Adam Pykel.

Green marketing and motivation

Skanska is currently developing a project that is pioneering in its character but rather more modest – or so it seems in its present design stage. For the developer’s Axis office building near the Mogilskie roundabout in Kraków, the company has got together with public and private partners to create a 500m walking route between the Mogilskie and Grzegórzeckie roundabouts. The project, which has been named ‘Superścieżka’, will be divided into a number of sections, while the revitalisation costs are to be covered by Skanska and the local borough as well as the owners of adjacent plots. “Locals will have the benefit of using a number of features, including green recreational areas and landscape architecture such as benches, street lamps and bicycle stations,” says Paweł Paśnikowski, the sustainable development manager of Skanska Commercial Development Europe. The project is due to be launched next year.

Marketing is undoubtedly one of the more important reasons why developers invest in public space. It involves both relations with city authorities as well as tenants. “The care for the public space around a building is in line with our strategy. The responsible development of urban space is much more important for us than, for example, presenting ourselves as a green developer. Energy-efficient, green solutions are used by virtually all developers nowadays. We want something more: we want to create interesting and quality surroundings, and offer tenants more than just a workplace,” explains Jarosław Zagórski. But is this a profitable strategy? The representative of Ghelamco has no doubt about this and points out that Warsaw Spire is 60 pct leased a year before its completion. This can be considered a good result on a Warsaw market characterised by an oversupply of office space. “The success of the project also stems from the policy to develop the quality of the urban fibre. This is of crucial significance for potential tenants of Warsaw Spire and Plac Europejski – and is drawing them in like a magnet,” claims Jarosław Zagórski. “My entire team is excited about what we are doing, which is generating a great deal of energy within the company. We feel that we are creating new value for the city, a new place on the map of Warsaw,” he adds.

To design a garden

Vastint has included the word ‘garden’ in the name of its three projects: in Warsaw, Poznań and Wrocław – and not without a reason. A representative of the company claims that it is not a marketing ploy but reflects the concept of the business parks, where the landscape architecture plays a key role. For example, in Business Garden Warsaw, which is to comprise seven buildings with a combined leasable area of 90,000 sqm, 60 pct of the grounds are biologically active (which includes the green roofs). App. 35 pct of the 6 ha area is a ground-level garden including a number of waterholes, tall grass and even rushes. In June the project came first in the ‘Design:Space’ competition organised by the Ministry of Environment for commercial projects that improve the quality of life, the aesthetics of the area and create a place for nature in the city. “The clear division between work and personal life has clearly been receding for some time. Employees come to the office at various times and they also leave at different times. In a garden they can relax, stay in pleasant surroundings, and thanks to this they are more efficient. Many people eat their lunch outdoors – and they can also work there because we provide free of charge Wi-Fi in the garden. Deckchairs are laid on and a variety of events are organised in the garden on sunny days. In Poznań we have a business zone, which includes garden furniture, where tenants can even organise simple business meetings. Outdoor sports facilities have also been provided in the gardens in Poznań and Wrocław – a basketball court as well as chess areas and pétanque terrains,” reveals Ewa Łydkowska, the head of marketing at Vastint Poland. She emphasises that the projects lease very well: the first stage of the Warsaw complex, which has an area of 32,000 sqm and was finished at the beginning of this year, has already been 100 pct occupied.

Profit uncertain nonetheless

But do green areas attached to office buildings really increase the property’s value in every instance? It turns out that the answer is not as obvious as environmental enthusiasts might want it to be. Małgorzata Żółtowska of JLL explains that there are not so many commercial facilities that feature such green areas on the market and thus there is also not enough data to ascertain how much value these areas add. “A square or a green area are in themselves, of course, an added value, but it is not easy to quantify this in valuations because these mostly take into account the revenue generated by the property. It is not obvious at all whether the potentially higher revenue that results from an increase in the attractiveness of the premises will not be eaten up by higher operating costs,” she explains. On the other hand, it needs to be said that in all probability there is indeed such an impact – and that it is positive. It seems that tenants are increasingly often looking for something more in a building than just office space. And this does not merely involve aesthetic issues but also the running of the business. “Companies are often inclined to pay higher rents to offer their employees attractive working conditions. This is down to the fact that we spend a considerable part of the day at work and the quality of the working conditions is starting to play an increasingly significant role,” says Małgorzata Żółtowska.

According to the JLL specialist, the fact that tenants are raising the bar for developers could also effect a transformation of the Warsaw market. It could, for example, speed up the shift of Warsaw’s business centre or CBD towards Wola district, where more and more modern buildings are being developed. A significant element of this modernity also entails smarter and greener development of the area around the buildings. “In the future this could become a problem for those properties located in the inner centre, where the value of plots is so high that developers build up every single piece of land, hoping for a higher return on the investment. If, however, there are more projects that offer something extra, developers will be forced to adjust this strategy. This could result in an avalanche of new, more competitive and more creative projects,” believes Małgorzata Żółtowska.

Quality comes first

According to a report published by the faculty of gardening at Blacksburg University in Virginia, of all the aspects of landscape architecture that influence the price of a property, the design is the most important. The sophistication of the design affects our perception of the developed area to the greatest extent (the view of 42 pct of those surveyed). The size of the greenery is also important (36 pct) followed by its diversity (22 pct). Designs that are too simple or too modest simply do not engender this kind of positive response. There is also the issue of familiarity with the plants in terms of their maintenance and adjustment to specific conditions. Investors have to choose whether to bring in a separate landscape architect for the project, who should understand all these nuances, or entrust the architect responsible for the building with the project. “Both models are popular in Europe and America and I would say that they occur equally often. And the cleverer type of developer understands this. However, due to their qualifications in the field, a landscape architect could offer something that a regular architect is not able to. It often happens that someone who is not familiar with plants, creates a place with a cold atmosphere that is not at all people-friendly,” explains Peter Wirtz. “Everything can be designed individually to make it integrate with the building as effectively as possible. Such as benches, litter bins, walls and fountains – which can be combined to create a harmonious whole with the entire project. Investors are often unaware that going for an individual design for the landscape architecture, even though it requires slightly more time, constitutes a marginal cost in the scale of the entire project – and has a lot more impact on the appearance of the area and on increasing the property’s value,” concludes Krzysztof Mróz.