We live in the era of smart phones, smart watches, smart cars and smart homes. But are we ready for super smart office buildings? An article by By Stefania Baldovinescu, Senior Partner, Real Estate Management Services at Colliers International Romania.

PZU’s office building in Wrocław – Komandorska 12 – has been recognized with an LEED Gold certificate. The building includes systems that control water, heat and energy consumption. Furthermore, its architecture ensures access to natural daylight on 80% of floor space. 

SAP Slovakia, is renting over 3,000 sqm of office space within the Twin City office complex in Bratislava. SAP also included in its new lease contract approximately 120 underground parking spaces. The branch moved from the BBC V office building after having its seat there for the past 10 years.

HB Reavis has started the construction of the Stanica Nivy project in Bratislava. The Nivy Tower office building is the first to be built and is destined to become a landmark with the highest point reaching 125 metres.  The remaining construction of the scheme, which will include a new supra regional shopping centre, a modern marketplace and international bus terminal, will be launched in the summer.

There is currently 1.66 million sqm of office space under development in Poland, of which 965,000 is located outside Warsaw. Historically, this is the highest construction activity registered on Poland's regional markets, JLL reports. During the first three months of 2017, companies signed lease agreements for 371,700 sqm of office space, of which 177,700 sqm was leased on markets outside Warsaw. 

Skanska has launched the construction works of the second building of its Spark office complex in the Wola district of Warsaw. It will provide 18,000 sqm of modern office space and will be located at Serek Wolski. This ten-floor building, which will be developed during the II phase of Spark, will be delivered to market in Q1 2019.

Over time, some office locations enhance their position in the eyes of tenants while others – lose popularity. The reason for this change usually results from communication infrastructure as its development can create new business regions. JLL has taken a closer look at tenants’ preferences regarding office locations on major Polish markets based on concluded lease agreements. The company focused solely on new deals – excluding renewals of already existing contracts and expansions – signed in Warsaw (in 2012 and 2016), and Kraków, Wrocław, Tri-City, Katowice, Poznań and Łódź (in 2011 and 2016).

Reconstruction works on the former HQ of the Budapest Stock Exchange and the Hungarian Television are planned to start at the beginning of 2018 with a budget of €38 million. The 100-year-old building will be reborn as Exchange Palace, an office building with approximately 31,700 sqm of GLA:

The construction of a new Class A office building was announced in Debrecen. The 22,000 sqm office building will be the largest office building in Eastern Hungary. The building, set to be completed in Q3 2018, is designed by Bord Architect Studio. Office leasing, green certification and project consultation will be provided by the Hungarian office of Colliers International.

The Bucharest office market recorded leasing transactions more than 100,000 sqm during Q1.2017, almost doubling the volume of transactions recorded in the same period of the previous year. Net office take-up during Q1 2017 stood at 57,200 sqm. Colliers International published its summary of the Bucharest office market in Q1 2017