Gold in Gdańsk

When you hear about unusual projects like this, such questions spring to mind as: How do they come about? What are their advantages and disadvantages? Are they worth it – both economically and environmentally? And, are they likely to set a new trend? Millennium Bank must have considered all these issues, so why did its local management decide to embark upon this particular project rather than demolish the old structure to build a new one or even simply invest in new premises?

Anna Wojda, a project manager in Bank Millennium’s department of administration and infrastructure, provides us with the explanation: “From an economic point of view, it would have been unprofitable to demolish the building and rebuild it. Either way, we knew from the beginning that we wanted to modernise this building. Bank Millennium historically comes from Gdańsk. This modernisation is therefore much more important because it is a nod to the history of our organisation. We didn’t want to destroy history, we just wanted to make every effort to make what has served us for many years even better. The building with a classic, difficult form, dating back to the times of the Polish People’s Republic, has be given a modern look and character. This is what sustainability is all about: making the most of the tools we already have. Therefore, when certifying this building, we wanted to confirm with the LEED certificate that this building does not differ from modern investments.”

The building in question, on ul. Grunwaldzka in Gdańsk’s Wrzeszcz district, was constructed in the late 1960s and acquired by Bank Millennium in 1989. But it was in 2021 that the bank’s real estate unit started making plans for this project. And so, Bydgoszcz-based general contractor Przedsiębiorstwo Wielobranżowe Wojmar was brought in to reconstruct it according to a design by Wrocław architectural studio Ch+ Architekci. The reconstruction work itself lasted from July to December 2022, when the building was reopened to the bank’s employees and clients. It is now the bank’s largest financial centre in northern Poland.

Future- and fashion-proofing

But how challenging was the project to carry out? “We certainly had to face many challenges on this project,” explains Anna Wojda. “The construction of the building itself differs significantly from contemporary buildings, which is visible in the height of the floors. Placing the installations in the ceiling space was out of the question, so designing and implementing the HVAC installation was a challenge.” The challenges did not only lie in the technical aspects, but also in making the space future-proof and user-friendly in terms of its design. As Anna Wojda goes on to emphasise: “Creating something new is one thing, but creating it so that it will serve us for many years is completely different. That’s why we decided to use natural materials that, firstly, never go out of fashion, and secondly, and most importantly, are more durable, such as wood or furniture with an extended warranty period. Interestingly, we have kept the original oak parquet floor from the 1970s in the kitchen. It has been used in this building for over 40 years and after being refreshed, it still looks great and has not lost its properties. We focused on a neutral design that does not follow trends. The interiors are decorated in natural colours broken only by our branding magenta. We did not want to just follow fashion, but to create a friendly workplace for our employees that will encourage them to come to the office and will do so for many years.”

The obvious advantage of modernising older buildings is that it benefits the environment, as Anna Wojda explains: “By renovating an existing building, instead of constructing a similar building from scratch, we have reduced our carbon footprint by as much as 57 pct! This is a huge success and represents a significant reduction in the negative impact on the natural environment. Certification of newly constructed buildings is now standard. Renovating old buildings and giving them new life will need to become more common over time due to the real estate market. State institutions support pro-ecological activities, including in the form of subsidies for the photovoltaic installations with which our building is equipped. Purchasing green energy was an obvious choice for this investment.”

Turning silver into gold

The bank had been aiming to achieve LEED ‘Silver’ certification, but through such measures managed to surpass its own expectations by achieving LEED ‘Gold’. ESG strategies consultancy JWA supported Millennium Bank during the certification process for the building. This particular project was led by Zuzanna Targosz, a team manager and sustainability specialist at JWA, who is herself a believer in the approach taken by the bank. “Due to the fact that the vast majority of existing structural elements were reused, the building itself has lower impact indicators, including CO2 emissions. Constructing a brand-new building from scratch would produce twice as many emissions. In the construction process, materials are responsible for the largest percentage of emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere – they are used in large quantities, and their production process requires significant inputs of raw materials and energy,” claims Zuzanna Targosz, who goes on to add that such projects are also beneficial to the local community, in terms of both reusing inner-city sites instead of building in new locations and the resulting reduction in emissions from transport: “Reusing the building and creating a compact neighbourhood in the long run means that we preserve the land, habitant and open space, and thanks to this we do not contribute to urban sprawl. At the same time, dense development influences people’s health, as they are encouraged to use vehicles much less frequently to commute. And simultaneously, this improves the local environment, by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. And due to its convenient location in the centre of town, the access to public transport is excellent.”

Anna Mazurek, the head of the real estate team in Millennium Bank’s administration and infrastructure department, concurs with this view, explaining further that: “One of the many benefits that the implementation of our project brought is the fact that we have basically gained a modern building in the very centre of the city. The real estate market in Poland has been developing dynamically for years, and as a result, the availability of buildings in central locations is decreasing. The location of our building in Wrzeszcz is excellent and this is one of the reasons why we decided to modernise it.”

You know it makes sense

Zuzanna Targosz of JWA makes the more general point that: “Taking into account the environmental aspects and the emissions generated during the construction process, it is preferable to retrofit existing facilities rather than demolish them and then build new ones. The revitalisation of older buildings contributes to reducing the operational carbon footprint and brings us closer to the climate neutrality of construction. At the same time, it ensures user comfort and keeps the property competitive.” While Bank Millennium has declined to reveal the investment costs for the renovation project and ensuring that the building could achieve such a high LEED rating, it is certainly the case that for older assets to remain attractive – not only to tenants, employees and other users but also to real estate investors – they will have to undergo a similar process. Since the EU is a signatory to the Paris Agreement, all its member states have obligated themselves to becoming climate-neutral by 2050. “In the context of construction, this means that we are facing a lot of refurbishment of older buildings that are not energy efficient and have a high operational carbon footprint. In addition, there is a shortage of attractively located new building plots in the cities and the best-connected, central locations are occupied by ageing buildings, which will have to be modernised sooner rather than later in the context of EU environmental policy,” adds Zuzanna Targosz. Being energy efficient obviously reduces maintenance costs, but the owners of older buildings also need to be aware that due to these obligations, such projects in the long run make both environmental and economic sense, since the higher their certification level, the greater their value will be into the future.

The financial centre on ul. Grunwaldzka is not the only recent renovation of a historic project to be carried out by Millennium Bank, as in the same city the bank has also modernised a building for a branch on Targ Drzewny. Have these two projects, given the bank an appetite for similar sustainable modernisations in the future? The answer would seem to be yes: “The reconstruction project of the building on ul. Grunwaldzka has very much given us the confidence to implement similar projects. If we have to face a similar challenge in the years ahead of us, we will not be afraid of it and we will certainly follow the direction set by it. We can already say that this is our flagship investment,” concludes Anna Mazurek of Bank Millennium.