Jems to design Warsaw offices for PHN

In the spring the group announced that a studio had been chosen, but did not disclose its name. Jems will now be designing a project with an office area of app. 38,000 sqm. The cooperation with the chosen architectural studio will involve the development of the comprehensive conceptual, construction, tender and detailed designs as well as one for obtaining an occupancy permit. The first stage comprises the construction of an office building with an area of app. 10,000 sqm, which will be constructed on the site of a car park in front of the Intraco skyscraper. The work on this phase of the project is to start in Q3 2015 and should be completed by the end of 2016. However, the future of the Intraco office tower, which has overlooked the northern part of Warsaw city centre since the 1970s, remains unclear. PHN has been insisting that the building would be demolished and replaced by a new skyscraper, but the decision is not final and is subject to the potential revenue that the office building would generate. The launch of the second stage of the project is unlikely to take place before 2016. Meanwhile, the construction of another Warsaw skyscraper by the group – PHN Tower on ul. Świętokrzyska – will now only be starting in 2017. According to Artur Lebiedziński, the preparation work and the resolution of legal issues are currently in progress to confirm the group’s ownership rights to the property, against which a number of claims have been made. Architects have yet to be chosen for the project, but the group has now returned to an earlier concept involving connecting the planned skyscraper with a station on the second line of the Warsaw metro. Meanwhile, the situation with PHN’s two other projects in the capital is becoming clearer. The group has now completed a conceptual analysis of the project on ul. Bartycka, where an exhibition and retail facility with 69,000 sqm gla is to be built. The premises will be divided into an exhibition and construction section and a retail/services section. The launch of the first stage of the project, which is to be carried out with at least one partner, is expected to start next year. The other project, on al. Wilanowska in Warsaw’s Służewiec district, is also start next year. PHN had been considering developing a retail project on the site and had even discussed cooperating on this with Unibail-Rodamco (the owner of the neighbouring Galeria Mokotów mall). However, the building will now be an office or an office/hotel project with an area of app. 30,000 sqm. If it is to be hotel development, it would have 100–150 rooms. In H1 2014, PHN sold five properties (including app. 500 ha in Łagów) for almost PLN 26 mln. The group also generated PLN 12.7 mln of consolidated net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company, after a loss of PLN 16.3 mln a year earlier.