Has the Millennium building finally escaped its chequered past?
Yet in a market where fully furnished offices and rent free periods now come as standard, some may wonder at what price this was achieved.
Though the building's current 15% vacancy rate is only just above average Warsaw office space vacancy levels, considering the wide discrepancies on the market, the use of the average rate as a yardstick is comparatively meaningless. For instance, the fact that the much-hyped Hines Metropolitan building, which itself offers 34,000 square meters of office space, has so far only managed to fill 5,000 square meters is enough to contort the figures for A class office space.
The ability of Reform Company, which now owns the building, to attract presitigious tenants is widely attributed to its blockbuster contract eighteen months ago with Millennium Bank, which now occupies nine floors of the building. Though most market insiders suspect that the bank's involvement in the funding of the building's original development played a part in their decision to move in, the deal has proved advantageous for both sides. The bank obtained inexpensive but sensible office space, plus a building bearing its own name, while Reform Company acquired a tenant with enough cachet to eclipse the building's somewhat shady reputation and attract other desirable clients. Doubling the number of elevators has also removed one of the building's biggest drawbacks.
Of course, the clientele goes no way to equaling that of Warsaw's smartest business buildings, such as Warsaw Financial Centre, but Millennium Plaza is keeping its end up with some success.
"We did want to bring legal companies in," admits Ron Melchet, managing director of Reform Company. "However, our policy now is to concentrate on media and financial institutions with a good reputation. A policy which means that we've had to reject some clients."
Ron Melchet's policy of targeting financial and media institutions with competitive prices is something that even his competitors recognize as both sound and successful. Millennium Plaza tenants, Business Press and Wprost, have both recently renewed their five year leases.
"It's a sensible decision and I have to give full credit to the new owners and management, who are really doing well," says Alan Colquhoun, Managing Director of international property advisers DTZ. Colquhoun also adds that though the building may be pushing into the A class bracket, it is not on a sufficient level in terms of either quality or location to attract the cr—me de la cr—me. But according to Grzegorz Strutynski of property managers G.E. Golub Polska, the comparitive success of Reform Company is largely down to price discounts.
"Of course, it's got something to do with the money," he says. "Media companies, for example, haven't got the means to spend large amounts on location."
Though the building's current 15% vacancy rate is only just above average Warsaw office space vacancy levels, considering the wide discrepancies on the market, the use of the average rate as a yardstick is comparatively meaningless. For instance, the fact that the much-hyped Hines Metropolitan building, which itself offers 34,000 square meters of office space, has so far only managed to fill 5,000 square meters is enough to contort the figures for A class office space.
The ability of Reform Company, which now owns the building, to attract presitigious tenants is widely attributed to its blockbuster contract eighteen months ago with Millennium Bank, which now occupies nine floors of the building. Though most market insiders suspect that the bank's involvement in the funding of the building's original development played a part in their decision to move in, the deal has proved advantageous for both sides. The bank obtained inexpensive but sensible office space, plus a building bearing its own name, while Reform Company acquired a tenant with enough cachet to eclipse the building's somewhat shady reputation and attract other desirable clients. Doubling the number of elevators has also removed one of the building's biggest drawbacks.
Of course, the clientele goes no way to equaling that of Warsaw's smartest business buildings, such as Warsaw Financial Centre, but Millennium Plaza is keeping its end up with some success.
"We did want to bring legal companies in," admits Ron Melchet, managing director of Reform Company. "However, our policy now is to concentrate on media and financial institutions with a good reputation. A policy which means that we've had to reject some clients."
Ron Melchet's policy of targeting financial and media institutions with competitive prices is something that even his competitors recognize as both sound and successful. Millennium Plaza tenants, Business Press and Wprost, have both recently renewed their five year leases.
"It's a sensible decision and I have to give full credit to the new owners and management, who are really doing well," says Alan Colquhoun, Managing Director of international property advisers DTZ. Colquhoun also adds that though the building may be pushing into the A class bracket, it is not on a sufficient level in terms of either quality or location to attract the cr—me de la cr—me. But according to Grzegorz Strutynski of property managers G.E. Golub Polska, the comparitive success of Reform Company is largely down to price discounts.
"Of course, it's got something to do with the money," he says. "Media companies, for example, haven't got the means to spend large amounts on location."
