WBJ: Business Link is expanding in Studio, Skanska’s office complex in Warsaw. What makes it the right location for your expansion?
Ewelina Kałużna: The new space in Studio A will offer fully serviced offices, meeting rooms, collaboration spaces, and event facilities for corporate clients and fast-growing companies. It is Skanska’s latest Warsaw project, located in Wola, next to Norblin Factory, a vibrant mixed-use destination. The location sits where Warsaw works, eats and socializes, which is the energy we want clients to encounter.
Beyond location, Studio lets us build the most ambitious Business Link yet. For the first time in any of our flex locations, in Studio B, we have introduced a private gym, a nap capsule, a meditation and regeneration room, and a green box studio for podcasting and audiovisual production. These are not brochure amenities. They reflect our belief that the workplace needs to support its users. Now, in Studio A, we are adding two office floors, and a floor with a meeting center and a space to build a community.
For our Warsaw portfolio, the new space adds an anchor in the capital, with an exclusive vibe and flexible offering.
How do you see the role of flexible offices evolving as the market matures, corporate demand grows and hybrid work becomes standard?
Flex offices have moved from the margins to the mainstream. What was once a solution for startups and freelancers is now a strategic tool for corporations managing dispersed teams, entering new markets or navigating uncertainty around headcount.
As hybrid work becomes the baseline, the office has to earn its place. People will not commute to sit in a space they could replicate at home. It has to offer better acoustics, air, lighting, human connection and support. That is where flex operators have an advantage.
Corporations are also combining long-term leases with flex space to gain overflow capacity, project-based space or a soft landing in a new city. Business Link can serve teams of five to several hundred within the same ecosystem, with service levels corporate clients expect.
What are the advantages of developing Business Link locations within Skanska buildings, and how does the owner-operator model benefit clients?
When you are part of the same capital group, interests are aligned. We are not a tenant trying to maximize margin from a landlord’s asset. We are part of a single value proposition that delivers long-term value and client satisfaction.
Clients benefit from Skanska’s commitment to infrastructure, certifications and maintenance standards, without having to navigate separate systems. The base build is not a constraint. It is a foundation.
For clients, the benefit is trust. They know the building is LEED certified, meets the Building without Barriers standard, and has verified environmental and well-being credentials.
How do you measure customer satisfaction, and what role do reception, Customer Care and community managers play in client retention?
We measure satisfaction annually through feedback surveys and net promoter metrics, but our best signal is whether people stay, refer others and expand their space with us. Those are behaviors, not scores.
What drives those behaviors is rarely the contract. It is the person at reception, the Customer Care manager who notices that a team’s needs are growing, and the community manager who helps employees feel connected. None of that is in a contract, but it is what clients remember.
We have built one of the strongest internal client-facing teams in the Polish flex market because service density matters. Retention is earned in small amounts, not only in contract renewals.
How do you see Wola’s transformation into Warsaw’s new central business district, and what role does Business Link play in that ecosystem?
Wola is one of the most significant shifts in Warsaw’s urban geography in a generation. The area around Rondo Daszyńskiego and Rondo 1 has become a major engine of new office supply, attracting companies that want a modern, connected, walkable district.
Business Link’s presence in Studio places us right at the heart of that story. Flex space provides an entry point for companies arriving in Warsaw, overflow capacity for established tenants, and collaborative infrastructure that helps a district develop a business community.
With the metro, Norblin Factory and the wider neighborhood, Wola has the conditions that attract talent. Business Link Studio connects the district’s energy to our clients’ ambitions.
Looking ahead, what is the biggest strategic opportunity for Business Link, and what is the biggest risk for the flex office market?
The biggest opportunity is the corporate segment. Large organizations understand that combining a long-term lease with a flex layer gives them financial flexibility, geographic reach and the ability to respond to team changes. Business Link, as a premium operator embedded in Skanska’s Class A buildings, is well positioned to be their trusted partner.
We also see an opportunity in how well-being and ESG requirements are shaping procurement decisions. Because our locations are in independently certified buildings, we can provide that assurance.
The answer to risk is differentiation that cannot be easily replicated: building quality, service depth, authentic ESG credentials, and design standards for well-being and inclusivity. Those things take years and genuine investment to build. They are in Business Link’s DNA.
Ewelina Kałużna is President and Managing Director of Business Link and Head of Workplace Advisory for CEE at Skanska. With more than 20 years of experience in commercial real estate, she oversees Business Link’s operations while advising clients on workplace strategy and flexible office solutions. Previously, she held executive leasing and asset management roles at Skanska and worked at Colliers International and JLL. A graduate of the Warsaw School of Economics, she is also an active mentor and industry speaker.
