A park in the truest sense

The directors of AIG/Lincoln have also added The Park project to the reasons why it is worth visiting the Czech capital. The complex of offices, which was completed in five stages, offers an office area of 115,000 sqm. "If someone wants to see a genuine office park, not only in name, they should go to Prague. The complex has been created in such a way to make employees feel good and work effectively, so it features low-rise buildings and substantial green areas suitable for relaxation, as well as services to make everyday life easier, such as restaurants and cafés, a fitness club, a nursery school, banks, a hairdressing salon and a car wash. It is an entirely self-contained business park," boasts Mirosław Szydelski, a board member of AIG/Lincoln Polska. A similar complex is being built by the developer in Warsaw, with the first building to be finished by the end of this year. Porr Polska has been working on the building site since October last year. Eventually an area of app. 110,000 sqm is planned for this complex of ten small office buildings. "The pace of the development of the project depends on market needs. However, I think it will be faster than in Prague, where The Park was a pioneering project," believes Mirosław Szydelski. The first building of the Czech complex (IBM's head office in the country) was handed over to its users in 2003, while the last building in the fifth stage of the enterprise was finished in 2009. The Park in Warsaw, designed by the capital city-based APA Wojciechowski architectural studio, is being erected on an 8 ha plot site between ul. Łopuszańska, ul. Orzechowa and ul. Krakowiaków, near the airport in Okęcie district.

Employee- and nature-friendly offices
UBM and CA Immo's Poleczki Business Park and Business Garden Warszawa by Swedish developer SwedeCenter are two of the projects which spring to mind when thinking about the competition. Both developments are located in the same part of the city (PBP is being built on ul. Poleczki and BGW at the junction of ul. Żwirki i Wigury and ul. 1 Sierpnia) and according to a concept based on a complex of small office buildings, the provision of services and attention to so-called green issues. "Each of the facilities will obtain a BREEAM certificate at the ?Very Good' level. We will earmark at least 6 pct of the buildings' areas for complementary functions in order to provide clients with a feeling of well-being in our project," announces Mirosław Szydelski. The developer is currently looking for tenants. When should we expect the first results? Soon, he declares. Meanwhile, SwedeCenter has announced that it has signed its first tenant for Business Garden: Adidas, which is to occupy 2,800 sqm. Two buildings in the first stage, with a combined area of 32,000 sqm, are to be finished in the third quarter of the year. The Swedish developer is planning to eventually deliver a leasable area of app. 90,000 sqm. In the meantime, the second stage of Poleczki Business Park (a total area of app. 21,000 sqm), which is LEED pre-certified at the ?Gold' level, is to be completed this month. The first 45,000 sqm stage is 95 pct leased.

Warehouse reinforcement
Lincoln Park is another office project AIG/Lincoln is working on in Poland. A complex of six office buildings of seven-storeys with one ten-storey main building and a combined area of over 55,000 sqm is to be built on ul. Sasanki near ul. Wirażowa in Warsaw's Służewiec district (also near the airport). The developer has already received a permit for the construction of the first office building with an area of app. 10,000 sqm, and is currently in the process of selecting a general contractor. A contractor is also to be chosen soon for an office and warehouse project in Warsaw's Ursus district. Diamond Business Park Ursus, which is to be built on a 9 ha site, is designed to offer warehouse space of 43,000 sqm and 6,500 sqm of office space. The first building of the ?technology park' will provide 17,200 sqm of warehousing and 6,500 sqm of offices. The first earth on the site, at the junction of ul. Posag 7 Panien and ul. Szamoty, should be moved in the next few weeks, with the project due for completion by the end of this year. Another warehouse facility is also to be added to AIG/Lincoln's portfolio. Diamond Business Park Stryków (15 km out of Łódź) is to gain another 10,000 sqm hall, constituting the final part of the first stage of the development. Distribution centres for Lidl and DPD have already been opened in Stryków.