Tower of power

Another giant has been added to the ranks of Warsaw's city-center skyscrapers with the opening of the Rondo 1 building.

The 40-storey first-class office building consists of two parts - a 10-storey A-class building, completed last year, and the glass 192-meter tower, which has just been opened for tenants. Both structures are joined with a glass winter garden.

The developers point to the building's 'intelligence' as the project's main asset. Eighteen fast lifts are situated outside the main structure of the building. Rondo 1 is the first building in Europe to use a light-control system based on the digital technology DALI. Every bulb can be operated through a computer network. The remote-controlled blinds in the windows will also change their angle to maximize sunlight during the day.

The building is already popular among tenants. Companies such as Ernst & Young, Calyon Bank Polska, or Baker McKenzie have already moved into the building, and at the beginning of March the developer, Hochtief Project Development Polska, convinced Volkswagen Bank Polska to sign on the dotted line.

"The space leased to date constitutes 50 percent of the whole structure. Each time we approach a potential tenant individually, the rates, which are at market level, are negotiated," said the president of Hochtief Project Development Polska, Piotr Olbryś.

The Rondo 1 project cost EUR200 (zł.774.2) million. The investor is Rondo ONZ Project Development, a company launched by German firm Hochtief Projektentwicklung.

"Rondo 1 was a great investment success - it was sold before the building was completed. Rondo 1 is one of the biggest ventures in Central and Eastern Europe, and I hope that in the nearest future we will announce similar investments," said Hotchief's Olbryś.