One United Properties (BVB: ONE), the leading green investor and developer of residential, mixed-use, and office real estate in Romania, announces the conclusion of a new important leasing contract in the office segment: Global Business Solutions (GBS), the largest shared services centre of the BAT group and one of six globally, is moving its offices from Romania to One Cotroceni Park, Phase 2.
The new offices of BAT GBS, the service centre that serves on European and global level BAT subsidiaries, will occupy an area of 10,500 m2 in One Cotroceni Park Phase 2. This is one of the highest-performing real estate developments in Bucharest that benefits from LEED Platinum v4 pre-certification, attesting to sustainable operation and minimal environmental impact, and WELL Health and Safety certification, which assesses health and well-being at work. BAT GBS provides financial, human resources, IT, and other services to the entities of the BAT group, the largest player in the tobacco industry on the Romanian market, with a market share of over 50%. BAT Romania currently has over 3,000 employees in the four economic entities of the group – BAT Trading, the commercial entity, BAT Investment – the production plant in Ploiesti, and BAT GBS and BAT GBS Recruitment – the shared services centres of the group – and generates more than 30,000 jobs in the distribution chain.
“One Cotroceni Park is shaping up to be the new office hub of Bucharest, with well-known big companies that have already relocated their offices and one more important name joining them. The fact that a large international company, an important player on the services market in a highly competitive industry such as BAT GBS chooses to move its headquarters to One Cotroceni Park proves that, in a time of multiple challenges, One United Properties is an active player in the office segment. We offer certified products, built according to the most modern technologies, friendly to the environment and to the tenants, and providing integrated facilities that clearly contribute to retention and add real value to the processes of companies in the park”, said Mihai Păduroiu, CEO Office Division One United Properties.
“We are excited about our new offices, which encourage different ways to innovate and work together, with spaces for collaboration and creative interactions – an important aspect for our global integrated services centre (BAT GBS Romania). The new offices will be structured to facilitate hybrid experiences of connection and work, through new technologies and space design that supports interactivity. We chose this location to offer BAT GBS Romania employees an experience that invites them to come to the office, collaborate and enjoy special moments with their colleagues. The new location also allows us to advance our sustainability goals, thanks to the various facilities of the One Cotroceni compound, focused on ESG – an aspect that I support, and which is very important to our entire centre and to BAT’s mission to build a better future”, says Mario Calero Leyva, General Manager BAT GBS Romania. “We are very excited about this move. We have been thinking about changing our offices for a long time and now we have the opportunity to offer our teams a modern setting, based on new technologies that encourages innovation and process simplification, in a suitable setting for this “new normal” and beyond”, Mario Calero Leyva, General Manager BAT GBS Romania also added.
The transaction was brokered by Knight Frank Romania, with the direct involvement of two of the most senior representatives in the local real estate market, Horațiu Florescu and Roxana Bencze.“It is a great pleasure to be the agent for this transaction, the largest in the market this year. It was also a record from the point of view of the period of making the final decision, of about 6 months. The demand for office spaces in Bucharest in the nine months of 2022 was 15% higher compared to the same period last year, reaching 218,000 sqm, which shows us the constant importance of the physical offices for the optimal functioning of organizations”, Knight Frank Romania representatives added.
At the moment, 87% of the office and commercial spaces in Phase 1 and 55% in Phase 2 have already been leased, with major companies choosing One Cotroceni Park as headquarters. Among them are Ford, which opened the Ford Business Solutions Centre, Siemens Energy, which leased a space of 7,500 square meters for 10 years, Superbet, DB Cargo, SII Romania, Caroli and others. The new business pole on the map of Bucharest now brings together large companies and teams, who need spacious, modern workplaces, as well as integrated facilities that support and encourage employees’ return to the office. Equally, their interest in One Cotroceni Park leads to a paradigm shift: while the northern part of the city has been an area of high interest for renting offices, now, with the development of new centres, with new infrastructure, located closer to central and residential areas of the city, companies tend to reconsider their options for such business parks.
Developed on the site of the former Ventilatorul platform, on an area of 5.8 hectares, One Cotroceni Park is shaping up as the most ambitious urban regeneration project in Bucharest, which aims to renew the entire area by integrating office and residential buildings with mixed services intended to serve both the residents and the tenants, as well as to bring added value to the area and the whole community.
Following recent acquisitions, the company’s office portfolio has a GLA of 103,000 sqm of office space and will reach a GLA of 138,000 sqm after the delivery of One Cotroceni Park Office Phase 2 by the end of 2022. These GLAs already exclude those 18,000 sqm of one of the buildings within One North Gate office compound, which has been announced to be converted into a residential development, One North Lofts. Together with the retail portfolio (which mainly includes Bucur Obor and One Gallery), One United Properties’ total commercial rental portfolio will reach a GLA of nearly 180,000 sqm.
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