KPMG Polska confirmed for Warsaw Trade Tower move
Big Five accounting giant KPMG Polska has signed an agreement to lease some 6,000 square meters of office space in the Warsaw Trade Tower, according to Jones Lang LaSalle, the agency representing the developer in the negotiations. The announcement follows several months of whispers about an imminent deal. KPMG intends to empty its offices in the Lim Center and move into the Trade Tower in April. The skyscraper, developed by Daewoo's property development arm, Dae-Pol, is in Warsaw's western district of Wola.
The company has signed a five-year contract for an undisclosed amount, said Y.C. Park, marketing manager at Dae-Pol. Asking rents for space in the building are now $28-$29 per square meter for tenants taking at least 1,000 square meters, Park said.
Aside from Daewoo subsidiaries, KMPG is the first office tenant announced for the Warsaw Trade Tower, a $120 million development initially meant to open in September but delayed until late December, when it was opened in a low-key manner.
The 208-meter-high structure is the tallest office building in Central Europe according to Jones Lang LaSalle. It has 37,000 square meters of rentable space on 42 floors, of which the first six are to be retail, restaurant and exhibition space. KPMG will take offices from the 12th to 16th floors.
Dae-Pol claims that having signed an "anchor contract" with KPMG will help to attract other tenants in an increasingly competitive office market. "The situation is much better than in the last couple of months," Park said. He added that Dae-Pol was to sign another contract for a 400-square-meter office last week with the Japanese company Marubeni. Dae-Pol, which is also negotiating with the oil giant Polski Koncern Naftowy and other potential tenants, hopes to sign deals to fill all 42 floors as early as the first quarter of 2000, though some tenants might move in later, Park said.
He added that the developer has commitments for 80% of the retail space, including a fitness center, health clinic, exhibition center and possibly cinemas, Park said.
The KMPG contract was one of the three biggest office lease deals in the Warsaw market in 1999. Late last year German insurance firm Allianz took 9,000 square meters in the Europlex building on ulica Pulawska in Warsaw's Mokotow district just south of the city center. Last summer the local publishing firm Infor leased 6,000 square meters of space in the Klif building on ulica Okopowa in Wola.
Warsaw residential development to continue booming this year, but prices won't fall quickly
Residential development in Warsaw will continue to grow in 2000, increasing competition among investors, but tighter competition is not likely to immediately result in lower residential sale prices, according to predictions by Unikat, the property agency.
"(In 2000) the residential market will look similar to 1999 a huge number of new projects and increasing competition," said Jerzy Muszynski, chief analyst with Unikat.
Muszynski estimates that 10,000 new residential units will hit the Warsaw market in 2000. This figure is up 25% from 1999's 8,000 new residential units. In 1998 some 6,000 new residential units were developed in greater Warsaw.
Despite hotter competition, Unikat doesn't see any general drop in residential prices. "The prices most likely won't fall," Muszynski said. The reason? Strong demand, especially for low-end units, which leaves many developers with small margins and little room to lower prices. For example, J.W. Construction, a developer specializing in low-end projects in the remoter suburbs of Warsaw, sells apartments at zl. 2,200-zl. 2,300 per square meter, prices that are unlikely to fall, according to Muszynski.
If there is any downtrend in residential prices it will involve top-end units priced over zl. 4,100 per square meter or in older, low-end units in large communist-era apartment blocks, Muszynski said. The increasing number of new developments could push high-end projects in less attractive locations to drop below $1,000 per square meter, he added, but prices for new units in central locations are likely to continue upward. The range of prices in Warsaw is already greater than elsewhere in Poland and that range will become still larger, according to Muszynski.
But besides greater choice, there is another plus for end users: while unlikely to force prices down, the boom in residential investment should force developers to offer higher standards and more attractive financing conditions, Muszynski said. Marketing efforts for new projects may place downward price pressure on "substandard" high-rise residential blocks developed in the 1960s, '70s and '80s, he said.
Mostostal Warszawa and Warbud get contract to build Siekierkowski bridge
The consortium including Mostostal Warszawa, Campenon Bernard and Warbud have won the tender to build the Siekierkowski bridge, which will be the southernmost bridge over the Wisla river in the capital, the office of the president of Warsaw has announced. The consortium, which plans to build the bridge for E47.8 million, outbid four other consortia including Mostostal Krakow and Weyss & Freytag; Strabag; Kieleckie Przedsiebiorstwo Robot Mostowych and Razel; Walter Bau, Beton Stal, Mostostal Zabrze Holding and Dickersdorf & Widmann. Mostostal Warszawa, Campenon Bernard and Warbud won the tender despite presenting the second most expensive bid, after Strabag's, which went in at E51.7 million. The lowest bid, E42.9 million, was entered by Kieleckie Przedsiebiorstwo Robot Mostowych and Razel.
Warsaw city authorities foresee the Siekierkowski bridge joining the Mokotow and Praga districts by September 2002, making possible the 18-kilometer, zl. 1.1 billion ($261 million) Trasa Siekierkowska southern bypass of the capital.
The tender was the second organized by Warsaw authorities for the project. The first was declared invalid last year. Construction, initially planned to start in 1998, was delayed by cancellation of the first tender and lagging land purchases for the Trasa Siekierkowska highway bypass.
People on the move:
The real estate agency Healey & Baker, which lost at least five agents last year (see the WBJ, Dec. 20-Jan. 9, 1999) including partner Chris Grzesik and Sean Briggs, formerly head of retail, has announced four hirings according to managing partner Richard Petersen. Loic deVillard will replace Grzesik as head of investment activities by mid-January. A native of France, he had worked for the Warsaw office of Colliers since 1998. Also joining the investment department is Marcin Morawiecki, 22. He holds an M.A. in economics from the University of Glasgow.
Jerzy Wysocki, 45, has jumped from competitor Knight Frank Nieruchomosci to cover the office market in the nation's provincial cities. He holds an M.A. from the Warsaw Academy of Music. He spent four years as a musician on board American Cruise Ships visiting some 80 countries and six years with the Polish Radio and Television Orchestra.
Seweryna Afanasjew, 27, has joined the agency's property management team. She worked as a contract formulator and administrator for Fluor Daniel Consultants on the Gdansk Rafinery Modernization and Revamp Project. She holds an M.A. in Scandinavian studies from the University of Gdansk and a postgraduate diploma in law and management from the Technical University of Gdansk.
Christopher W. Zeuner, 21, recently joined Healey & Baker's commercial consultancy team to spend a year as a business trainee. He is in the third year of a four-year BcS. surveying course at Nottingham Trent University.
The DTZ real estate agency has hired Joanna Kowalska, 24, as a junior agent for offices. Last year Kowalska graduated from Warsaw University's department of history. Her professional background includes musicology, office management and language tuition for multinational companies.
Unikat's commercial properties department announced three hirings in December. Justyna Zajbt will handle public relations, Sebastian Proc will work as an office market agent and Dariusz Zajaczkowski will be a retail and warehousing agent.
