Tryton the northern titan

Tryton Business House first took form on the drawing boards of the Arch-Deco studio when it was being developed by Echo Investment, which subsequently sold the building to EPP. It was eventually bought by present owners Globalworth in December 2017. Since then its reputation has soared and at the Eurobuild Awards 2018 it won the tenants’ award for Office Building of the Year, beating off some stiff competition from Altus in Katowice (owned by Izera) and Poleczki Park in Warsaw (owned by UBM). The building in Gdańsk was also in the top three of last year’s competition, which was won by the Adgar Park West business complex in Warsaw, the runner-up being the Warsaw Financial Center. The survey was conducted by Kantar Millward Brown, with the tenant interviews for all 53 buildings nominated taking place in September and October. In total 30 questions were asked about all aspects of the buildings, including their location, rent levels, operating fees, comfort, management, sustainability and parking facilities. Each question had a scale of -5 to 5.

Understanding tenants  needs

The tenants of Tryton Business House gave it the highest score, 4, for the question: how satisfied are you with the rent levels for the building given its size and the type and quality of the office space? IO-1 came second with 3.67 and Malta Office, third with 3.5 and the overall average for all the buildings was 2. The tenants were also pleased with the charges for the operating fees where it scored 4.5 points beating WFC with 4.33 and University Business Park A with 4.25 (the average was 2.17). The technology in the building also scored highly (4.2, the average being 2.5) as well as how contracts were negotiated (4.4, the average being 2.64) and the building management (4.8, the average being 3.05). Whatever the building manager, Wojciech J. Wilczak of EPP, had done over the year to support the buildings’ tenants earned him the title of Office Manager of the Year 2018. “The most important thing at Globalworth is our flexible approach and understanding of our tenants’ needs. We are watching the market to see how our partners are developing so we can take an active role in supporting them in the process of change. A great number of companies are currently looking for additional space for short periods of time. We will meet this need through the strategic partnership that we have forged with Mindspace to provide modern co-working space in our buildings. Such an offer of space is extremely valuable to our tenants who, while developing their businesses, need effective solutions for the duration of their projects,” claims Karol Klin, the head of the leasing department at Globalworth Poland. The investor currently has more than 400,000 sqm of commercial space in Poland, but what are its plans for the portfolio it started to build in Poland in 2017? “Our business model is to expand our real estate portfolio in Poland and have our buildings independently managed. Typically, office buildings change owners every five years, which is not an easy situation for the tenants. We assure our tenants that we are going to stay on the market for a long time, and that our long-term view allows us to better match what we offer to meet their current and future needs, but it also allows us to develop high managerial standards in all our properties. What allows us to stand out are our economies of scale: since we have over 420,000 sqm, we can provide our tenants not only with uniform standards of management but also services that a traditional developer who focuses on the sale of a project after its completion cannot afford. We are introducing a standardised parking system in all our buildings, thus ensuring the maximum comfort for users,” adds Karol Klin.

Successful project

And how do the tenants rate where Tryton Business House actually is? For this question the building was beaten into second place, scoring 4.2 points for its accessibility by car (the average being 2.61). It also came second for the time spent waiting for a lift with a score of 4.2 (compared to the average of 2.86) and the continuity of the electricity supply (assessed at 4.75, the average being 3.37). Was this a coincidence? “As one of the tenants of the Tryton building, we can confirm that it is a very successful development. We have located our advisory centre here, which is our main customer service branch in Gdańsk. Our employees and clients admire this place primarily because of its location, its ease of access by both public transport and car, as well as the availability of parking in the building and in its immediate vicinity, along with its architecture and the prestige of the neighbourhood, which includes the European Solidarity Centre,” says Jacek Popiołek, the director of the real estate management department at MBank. ν

Tryton Business House:

Location: ul. Jana z Kolna 11, Gdańsk

Opened: April 2016

Area: 24,200 sqm gla

Number of parking spaces:
727 (and 72 bicycle spaces)

Tenants:
Intel, Kainos, PGS Software, Ciklum, Asseco, MBank, Eltel and EY

Green certificate: BREEAM ‘Excellent’

Architect: Arch-Deco

Manager: EPP

Developer: Echo Investment

Owner: Globalworth Poland