Six office buildings sold, another five buildings with occupancy permits, nearly 45,000 sqm of offices leased, the development of the food & beverage segment and the strengthening of the diverse offer of Libero Katowice and Galeria Młociny - these are the developer's key commercial sector successes in 2022.
Commercial real estate continues to be a strong keystone of Echo Investment's business. In 2022, the developer completed 104 thousand sqm of office space. In the past year, occupancy permits were granted for Wrocław-based MidPoint71 (over 37 thousand sqm), the Łódź-based REACT (15 thousand sqm), two office buildings at Milionowa Street (M4 and M4A) in Fuzja (nearly 22 thousand sqm) and the first phase, including segments A and B, of the Cracow-based Brain Park complex (nearly 30 thousand sqm).
"In 2022, the real estate market faced further challenges: the war across our eastern border, the unstable political situation in the region, inflation, the supply chain crisis, rising construction costs, reduced mortgage availability. Our strong performance in the commercial real estate business is the result of the hard work of our experienced design, development and leasing team. Hundreds of hours of analysing and constantly modifying our portfolio allow us to respond even more strongly to the fast-changing needs of investors and tenants. The standard of our projects and our stable position on the market, resulting from our previous attention to the quality of the products and services we provide, earn the trust of our clients. As a result, we can be proud of such successes as the sale of six office projects for a total of nearly €200 million. This proves that good commercial real estate, despite the turmoil all around, will stand strong as a great investment product", sums up Rafał Mazurczak, Echo Investment's Management Board Member responsible for the commercial real estate sector.
The projects sold in 2022 include West 4 Business Hub (15,500 sqm) in Wrocław, three office buildings as part of the 'destination' Fuzja project in Łódź and two office buildings in the Face2Face Business Campus complex (nearly 46,000 sqm) in Katowice.
Tenants still believe in offices
Two years of the pandemic have taken a heavy toll on the health of the office sector. Nevertheless, according to reports prepared by consultancy agencies, the activity of tenants in terms of offices is on the rise. Although companies have not completely given up on remote working, moving to a hybrid mode, the availability of well-designed spaces that reflect the brand spirit or corporate culture has not lost its importance. Echo Investment finished the year 2022 with nearly 45,000 sqm of leased office space. Among a dozen great lease contracts, it is worth mentioning the largest transaction of 8.5 thousand sqm for EPAM Polska in Brain Park in the Cracow-based Grzegórzki district.
"In recent years, the criteria for selecting offices has tightened up considerably. The increased importance of ESG in business, the search for safe and healthy living and working spaces, services and amenities available at our fingertips and even sometimes exclusively are main points on our clients' "must have" list. The satisfactory rental rate achieved by our team allows us to plan 2023 with optimism. Further bold projects lie ahead of us. Thanks to many years of experience, our broad perspective and, above all, our prudent decision-making, we can raise the bar, even in difficult times", highlights Rafal Mazurczak.
The developer's portfolio also includes flexible office space offered as part of the activities of the operator CitySpace, which includes currently 12 locations with a total area of 25,000 sqm, and which operates actively in 5 cities in Poland: Warsaw, Wrocław, Cracow, Katowice and Gdańsk, and will soon expand to Łódź.
