Construction commenced on GTC Hungary’s latest office development project. GTC White House is going to have a GLA of 21,500 sqm and is expected to be completed by end-2017. Concurrently, GTC Hungary will carry out a full interior refurbishment and technical reconstruction at Duna Tower Office.
GTC White House’s building permit came into effect on July 15, 2016. Swietelsky Hungary was named as the contractor for the deep foundation and basement works for the project, and GTC appointed international real estate agencies Cushman & Wakefield (C&W) and CBRE to serve as joint exclusive letting agents for the building.
GTC White House’s design incorporates and renovates the 100-year-old building of a former elevator factory (Schlick Felvonógyár) to create a modern office space of approximately 2,000 sqm in a unique working environment. The preserved historic building will be integrated into the whole of the new 21,500 sqm Class A office complex, which will be built to a LEED Gold environmental standard. Each floor will offer 2880 sqm of office space. A few minutes from two metro stations and tram line No. 1, GTC White House will have underground parking for 299 vehicles, over 150 bicycle stands, and shower suites.
GTC White House enters a reviving Budapest office market. Overall market vacancy rate currently stands at 10.3% from the low point of 22% in 2012. Following the 2008 downturn, construction of new office buildings in Budapest came to a halt (in 2009, 300,000 sqm was inaugurated, but dropped to practically zero in 2012-2013). Evidence of the new, positive trend is the approximately 80,000 sqm that will be made available in the capital this year, representing a growth of 42% over Q1 of last year.
Duna Tower Office, which was purchased by GTC in one of the biggest single asset office building acquisitions of 2015, will also be renewed. The interior refurbishing of 3,000 sqm of community areas and the full technical reconstruction of Budapest’s highest office building started in July. The remodeling of the 16-storey tall building, which offers a total of 31,500 sqm gross leasable area, is scheduled to finish in mid-October.
KÖZTI Architects & Engineers won the tender to recreate the lobby and to refurbish the cafe, the cafeteria, the terrace and the garden. The building’s air-conditioning system will be renewed, as will other technical installations, at a total cost of 2 million euros. To make the project as short as possible and to cause the least disturbance to tenants, work is being carried out over the summer. GTC Hungary has also launched a street food court next to the building.
With GTC White House the Hungarian subsidiary of Warsaw's Globe Trade Centre S.A. extends its entire domestic office portfolio to 140,000 sqm. GTC Hungary also owns Budapest’s tallest commercial office building - Duna Tower, Center Point - the capital’s largest office complex, GTC Metro and the Spirál Office Building.
Hexing Technologies Europe has leased 8,000 sqm for a new production plant in Globalworth Timisoara Industrial Park I. The lease deal was brokered by CBRE.
Eolus Poland, a renewable energy developer from Sweden, will become one of the tenants of LIFE Building. It will soon occupy nearly 300 sqm of the office building located in Warsaw's Wola district.
Polcast Media group, the owner of Polonia 1 TV, has signed a lease for approximately 500 sqm of office space at Trinity One in Warsaw. Located in Warsaw's Służewiec district, Trinity One is part of Revetas Capital's portfolio.
New appointments
Avison Young has named Adrian Crizbășianu, former executive at DB Schenker and VGP, as the new Head of Industrial & Logistics Agency. He has an extensive background in logistics and real estate spanning over 25 years.
Katarzyna Uzar joins the Valuation and Advisory team at Avison Young in Poland to take on the position of Assistant Valuer. She will support the team in creating offers and letters of appointment for valuation and will help property valuers throughout the valuation process.
Bartosz Chrostowski, an expert with almost 10 years of experience in commercial property, has joined real estate advisory firm Savills as an Associate Director of the landlord representation team of the office agency led by Daniel Czarnecki.
Banks in Romania are actively looking to accelerate new residential lending in Romania as the central bank is expected to lower interest rates in H2 2024. Lenders have initiated a series of offers with more favourable interest rates, below the 7% monetary policy rate set by the National Bank of Romania (NBR), according to Vlad Săftoiu, Head of Research at Cushman & Wakefield Echinox.
MLP Poznań witnessed a foundation stone laying ceremony for a new project to be developed for HAVI Logistics. Once completed, the new facility – comprising 16,000 sqm of space – is scheduled for handover at the beginning of the second half of 2024. The project contracted to WPIP Construction, will undergo a BREEAM New Construction certification of ‘Excellent’.
Immofinanz is taking another step in optimising its portfolio by selling two office properties in Vienna. The properties in the 20th district of Vienna have been sold to an Austrian real estate investor. This sale follows several others executed by CPI Property Group, Immofinanz' majority owner, in a bid to raise cash for repaying debts.
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