Movin' on up
Hundreds of political and business celebrities gathered to celebrate the opening of the new Centrum Gieldowe complex on ulica Ksiazeca last Thursday. The building will be the headquarters for the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) and the National Securities Depository (KDPW), as well as the home of several brokerage houses and banks.
"This building is a symbol of the changes of the last decade," said Wieslaw Rozlucki, the president of the WSE, adding that the exchange's new home reflects the WSE's spirit. "It's open, stable, and normal," Rozlucki said. The same could not be said of the WSE's old stomping grounds: a building that served as the headquarters for the Central Committee of the Polish Communist Party (KC PZPR).
Centrum Gieldowe is managed and partly owned by Centrum Bankowo-Finansowe "Nowy Swiat" (CBF), along with the WSE and the KDPW. Austrian PORR Hochbau was the general contractor.
The building was designed with the needs of its tenants in mind, and is one of the most modern and secure in the capital. "Centrum Gieldowe has already been called the most 'intelligent' building in Poland," said CBF President Robert Rzesos. Other intelligent buildings include the Warsaw University Library and the Supreme Court (SN). It is so technologically sophisticated that no building category can rightly describe it.
Tenants will be able to take advantage of an integrated IT network and building management system, electronic surveillance, card-controlled access, power generators and an emergency power backup system (UPS). Rzesos said the UPS guarantees 15 minutes of power for the entire complex and 60 minutes for the WSE alone in case of blackout.
Centrum Gieldowe is not only the most modern building in Poland; it is also the second most technologically advanced stock exchange facility in the world behind Kuala Lumpur. "All (other) stock exchanges are located in older buildings," Rzesos said.
"I would like the building's functionality to reach the level of its look in the future," said Lukasz Kwiecien, editor in chief of Parkiet Gazeta Gieldy. Kwiecien was at the ceremony last Thursday, and although his general impression was positive, he wasn't thrilled with some of the architectural choices. "I like its look in general, but certain elements recall the Warszawa Centralna railway station."
The architects responsible for the design are Stanislaw Fiszer and Andrzej Choldzynski, whose project was selected through a Polish Association of Architects' (SARP) contest in 1994.
Tenants have already begun to trickle into their custom-made premises. Rzesos said HSBC started moving in last Thursday, and KDPW is expected this week. The WSE will be the last man in, as it is waiting until its new Warset trading system is installed in several months.
Rzesos said the 33,320 square-meter Centrum Gieldowe building cost about $55 million. Aside from financial institutions, the building will also contain a WSE bookstore and a cafe available to the general public. Warsaw Mayor Pawel Piskorski appreciates the complex's variety. "The market was only a square in the center of the city a long time ago," Piskorski said. "Today, the market is contained in buildings like this one."
At the end of last Thursday's ceremony, Piskorski passed tenants documents allowing them to take possession of the building, while the general contractor handed over symbolic keys. The financial, business and political trinity of Rozlucki, Rzesos and President Aleksander Kwasniewski then officially opened the building by ringing a bell three times.
But before the crowds dispersed, another, less temporal authority was asked to endorse the complex. The Rev. Henryk Chudek, a priest from the nearest parish at plac Trzech Krzyzy, blessed the new financial hub, joking that "bells are ringing just like in a church." He added that this was certainly the first time he'd been asked to sanctify a stock exchange. But he was also happy for a less professional reason. "Warsaw is like a young girl," he said. "It grows up and becomes more beautiful."
