Natural office selection

The weather in Warsaw was stormy – as was the debate over which 50 office buildings should be entered for the Tenants’ Awards. Unfortunately, a consensus couldn’t be reached at our meeting. Disputes then raged via the internet over which projects should be ruled out and which ones should stay in. AFTER a few more days, A LIST FINALLY EMERGED

We have devoted a great deal of energy in preparing the ideal questionnaire for assessing the satisfaction levels of office tenants. By providing an analysis of the survey of tenants, Millward Brown will establish which office buildings are the best to work in. However, drawing up the questionnaire is merely the first step. Together with experts from the Warsaw Research Forum, we also had to select the buildings that should be covered by the survey. And there were plenty to choose from, as the analysts initially offered us a list of 150 buildings. Each proposal was discussed, with the result that the list was finally narrowed down to 50 office buildings in Warsaw, Gdańsk, Poznań, Katowice, Łódź and Wrocław.

The judgement of Solomon

Why have some of the projects been rejected by the experts of the Warsaw Research Forum? There are a number of reasons. The first is the vacancy rate. We have decided not to include buildings for which this is in excess of 25 pct. Office buildings that form part of mixed-use projects will also not be taken into account. A long discussion took place over how to treat office parks built in stages over a number of years. It was eventually agreed that they should be regarded as one project. However, there are such projects whose individual stages differ considerably from one to another in terms of the standard and construction period, as well as with regard to the owner and the facility manager. What would happen if such a project won? We would have to split the award between two owners! The conclusion reached was that there is no reason to treat them as the same project.

What other buildings are not going to be assessed? Those where the tenant is also the owner of the building or where the whole building is occupied by one or too few companies were ruled out. Older office buildings have also been omitted. For this reason we will not be surveying the tenants of the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, which is one of the oldest buildings of this type in the country. The Palace deserves a prize in a category all of its own!

A busy summer

Millward Brown and Eurobuild Awards are now starting the most important part of the whole endeavour – the tenant survey itself. Although this is certainly a huge challenge, we are far from being daunted! With our partners we have put in a lot of time and effort to make sure that the interviews held with the representatives of companies that lease office space will be a real pleasure. More importantly, they will also provide a great source of knowledge about the buildings. The full results of the survey will be announced at the awards ceremony in December. ν (EG)