Centertel tops list of big office deals
Telecom company Centertel's move to a new 10,000 square-meter office in the Renaissance Tower building in the Wola district was Warsaw's biggest office deal in the first half of this year, according to DTZ, a real estate agency.
That transaction was followed by data transmission company Telenergo's leasing the entire 7,000 square-meter Taifun building on Aleje Jerozolimskie.
The total number of deals in the capital in the first six months of this year reached 112, including 10 transactions where tenants took more than 2,500 square meters, according to figures from DTZ. The biggest deals included Hewlett Packard, which signed for 6,000 square meters of office space in the University Business Center II building in the Ursynow district; Swiss housewares producer Zepter, which took 5,500 square meters in its own office building in Mokotow; British American Tobacco, which leased 2,600 square meters of office space in the Wisniowy Business Park in the Wlochy district; and the Axel Springer publishing house, which took 2,350 square meters in the Ochota Office Park.
About 83% of the office deals in Warsaw were brokered by specialized agencies while 17% were signed directly between tenants and landlords, DTZ said.
As far as agencies are concerned, DTZ brokered the most deals in terms of square meters transacted (27,411), according to a survey conducted by Lokale Immobilia (see chart). DTZ represented landlords in 57% of the deals and tenants in 43%, the company said.
DTZ was closely followed by the U.K.-based Healey & Baker agency, which said it assisted in deals totaling 27,000 square meters, according to company figures.
Since the U.K.-based agency Jones Lang LaSalle, which some property watchers predicted would rank high on the list, refused to disclose its figures, the third position went to Unikat, a local agency that said it brokered deals totaling 15,900 square meters, according to Leszek Gietko, head of office leasing with the company.
The fourth spot went to CB Richard Ellis (formerly Henry Butcher Poland), which said it brokered 10 deals totaling 15,000 square meters. The agency's deals included the Centertel/Renaissance Tower transaction, in which it assisted Apollo-Rida, the landlord.
CB Richard Ellis was followed by the Couderq & Kubas agency. Despite losing its partner Pierre Couderq last year, the agency brokered deals totaling 14,300 square meters including the Taifun building lease to Telenergo, the agency said.
The new Couderq & Partners agency said it brokered deals totaling 14,000 square meters from November 1999 to mid-July 2000, putting it in sixth place on the list.
Agencies said they believe that the second half of the year will see more large deals than in the first half. According to DTZ, pending deals include BIG Bank Gdanski, which is looking for an 8,000 square-meter office; the Heineken-owned Zywiec and EB beer group, which is seeking 5,000 square meters of office space; and the 3,000 square meters of office space sought by National Grid and Polish State Railways, a telecom consortium.
