Not all tenants have decided to flee Intraco bldg.
But the Pioneer Investment Company not only isn't moving, it's taken up some of the free space for its new pension fund. The investment company and the pension fund now occupy a total of about four floors, spread over six floors.
The separate Pioneer venture capital operation might move from Intraco - but has put off any search for space until year-end or early 2000 when Richard Engel says their real estate advisers think the new building rents will drop because so much new space will be available.
"It's not a very nice building. And the only renovation they're doing is putting on a new exterior skin," he said. "But the vacancy level is still low."
That's partly because it's cheap. "You pay $37 a square meter, with all utilities, and that's significantly below what you'd pay in the 'A' buildings. In terms of space efficiency, the Warsaw Financial Center is the best bargain - but there's a price tag to go with it."
Geoffrey Skipper, vice president for investment of the overall Pioneer mutual fund operation, said he didn't think $37 a meter was all that cheap. When he was with the Korona investment fund, off of ulica Okopowa, the price was much lower.
But that really was a then high-rise wasteland area in another "re-skinned" old building, with nary a park nor restaurant around. That's changing, with the new PKB headquarters building nearby, but it is far from the downtown mix of shops, cafes and offices that adds "ambiance" hard to price.
Intraco, for all of its 32 floors of high-rent tenants, has never been a magnet for much commercial development, including restaurants. There are two restaurants in the building, on the first floor and on the top, and Skipper said he'd never been to either. He brings his own sandwiches and eats in - or goes to his favorite nearby luncheon cafe, La Boehme, near the National Theater and across from the Citibank headquarters.
The Intraco building was, for decades, the only place foreign businesses or foreign institutions could rent space. The better to monitor them, under the previous system. That's why the World Bank, the IMF and many of the pioneer business ventures here - from Levi Strauss to Johnson & Johnson to Pioneer - were early tenants.
• • •
Big surprises at the American School this week. The chiefs of both the high school and elementary school quit: Tony Horton and Nancy Hoppe. Karen Dunmire stays as middle school principal and Carol Kluznuk stays as director.
Horton had steered the fundraising and site-selection process for a new school in Konstancin, which had the groundbreaking recently.
There are more than 800 students in the American School on all levels and they come from a variety of communities, including Polish, with students disproportionately from parents in the multinational business community.
One version is that the school professionals got mau-maued by some over-zealous board members who had their own agenda for what should go on in the schools. Another is that too many business or embassy board members were passive or indifferent - while other board members were too "present" in ways that the professionals took as interference.
• • •
In three weeks, the wraps come off the hyper-competitive, megabucks advertising for the new pension funds, which had been banned until Feb. 16. The trick will be to be visible in the ruckus that will then occur - with nearly everyone saying "trust me, trust me," said Stephen Mangham, managing director of Saatchi&Saatchi, which will be doing media for ING's Nationale Nederlanden pension fund.
It also has been getting much Polish press notice for its advertising campaign for Nationale Nederlanden life insurance. These are totally separate corporate creatures. Because of the government's ban on pension advertising until six weeks before the signup begins April 1, last summer and fall saw unprecedented financial-services advertising campaigns by the parent companies of would-be pension funds - the major banks and insurance companies.
Just coincidentally, of course, the pension funds will bear the same names in most cases as their parents. So the ad campaigns, the corporate gurus hope, will ring a bell in the minds of up to 7 million Poles who will start signing up April 1 with one of the 13 licensed pension companies.
But getting back to the Nationale Nederlanden life insurance series. It has proved to be eye-catching on its own, as one of a new generation of interactive TV campaigns - in this case on "moral dilemmas" and "who do you trust," Mangham said.
The adverts ran in mass-audience TV shows, across many networks, and gave viewers two numbers to call. The first situation: a wallet fat with money, and with an address, is found. What to do? Return to owner or pocket it and keep quiet?
More than 250,000 people called in, and 60% said give it back, while slightly less than 40% said keep it.
The sequel now playing: the guy returns the wallet, finds the owner to be a curvaceous blonde, who invites him in. He's married; what should he do? (No answers yet, guys.)
• • •
Moves Around Town: One way to show the mushrooming effect of Poland's booming economy is to keep track of today's generation of smart young 'uns. When one job collapses, there are others. When a prosperous operation expands, people who have learned the ropes in one job often are moved up to become managers in the new venue.
Danuta Seliga, for instance, had for many years been top personal assistant to Pioneer CEO Alicja Malecka. Last fall, she moved over to the new Pioneer Pension Fund as public relations point person and will have her hands full in the coming months.
The separate Pioneer venture capital operation might move from Intraco - but has put off any search for space until year-end or early 2000 when Richard Engel says their real estate advisers think the new building rents will drop because so much new space will be available.
"It's not a very nice building. And the only renovation they're doing is putting on a new exterior skin," he said. "But the vacancy level is still low."
That's partly because it's cheap. "You pay $37 a square meter, with all utilities, and that's significantly below what you'd pay in the 'A' buildings. In terms of space efficiency, the Warsaw Financial Center is the best bargain - but there's a price tag to go with it."
Geoffrey Skipper, vice president for investment of the overall Pioneer mutual fund operation, said he didn't think $37 a meter was all that cheap. When he was with the Korona investment fund, off of ulica Okopowa, the price was much lower.
But that really was a then high-rise wasteland area in another "re-skinned" old building, with nary a park nor restaurant around. That's changing, with the new PKB headquarters building nearby, but it is far from the downtown mix of shops, cafes and offices that adds "ambiance" hard to price.
Intraco, for all of its 32 floors of high-rent tenants, has never been a magnet for much commercial development, including restaurants. There are two restaurants in the building, on the first floor and on the top, and Skipper said he'd never been to either. He brings his own sandwiches and eats in - or goes to his favorite nearby luncheon cafe, La Boehme, near the National Theater and across from the Citibank headquarters.
The Intraco building was, for decades, the only place foreign businesses or foreign institutions could rent space. The better to monitor them, under the previous system. That's why the World Bank, the IMF and many of the pioneer business ventures here - from Levi Strauss to Johnson & Johnson to Pioneer - were early tenants.
• • •
Big surprises at the American School this week. The chiefs of both the high school and elementary school quit: Tony Horton and Nancy Hoppe. Karen Dunmire stays as middle school principal and Carol Kluznuk stays as director.
Horton had steered the fundraising and site-selection process for a new school in Konstancin, which had the groundbreaking recently.
There are more than 800 students in the American School on all levels and they come from a variety of communities, including Polish, with students disproportionately from parents in the multinational business community.
One version is that the school professionals got mau-maued by some over-zealous board members who had their own agenda for what should go on in the schools. Another is that too many business or embassy board members were passive or indifferent - while other board members were too "present" in ways that the professionals took as interference.
• • •
In three weeks, the wraps come off the hyper-competitive, megabucks advertising for the new pension funds, which had been banned until Feb. 16. The trick will be to be visible in the ruckus that will then occur - with nearly everyone saying "trust me, trust me," said Stephen Mangham, managing director of Saatchi&Saatchi, which will be doing media for ING's Nationale Nederlanden pension fund.
It also has been getting much Polish press notice for its advertising campaign for Nationale Nederlanden life insurance. These are totally separate corporate creatures. Because of the government's ban on pension advertising until six weeks before the signup begins April 1, last summer and fall saw unprecedented financial-services advertising campaigns by the parent companies of would-be pension funds - the major banks and insurance companies.
Just coincidentally, of course, the pension funds will bear the same names in most cases as their parents. So the ad campaigns, the corporate gurus hope, will ring a bell in the minds of up to 7 million Poles who will start signing up April 1 with one of the 13 licensed pension companies.
But getting back to the Nationale Nederlanden life insurance series. It has proved to be eye-catching on its own, as one of a new generation of interactive TV campaigns - in this case on "moral dilemmas" and "who do you trust," Mangham said.
The adverts ran in mass-audience TV shows, across many networks, and gave viewers two numbers to call. The first situation: a wallet fat with money, and with an address, is found. What to do? Return to owner or pocket it and keep quiet?
More than 250,000 people called in, and 60% said give it back, while slightly less than 40% said keep it.
The sequel now playing: the guy returns the wallet, finds the owner to be a curvaceous blonde, who invites him in. He's married; what should he do? (No answers yet, guys.)
• • •
Moves Around Town: One way to show the mushrooming effect of Poland's booming economy is to keep track of today's generation of smart young 'uns. When one job collapses, there are others. When a prosperous operation expands, people who have learned the ropes in one job often are moved up to become managers in the new venue.
Danuta Seliga, for instance, had for many years been top personal assistant to Pioneer CEO Alicja Malecka. Last fall, she moved over to the new Pioneer Pension Fund as public relations point person and will have her hands full in the coming months.
