|
Interview with Piotr Michalski representing the Buma Group
Modern business centres are now associated in Kraków with the Buma Group. The Buma Sguare, Onyx, the Quattro Business Park and the Rondo Business Park are your flagship completed projects. What do tenants demand from a modern office building?
An office building is no longer just a place for work. More and more attention is paid to the comfort of people, so office projects are beginning to include facilities for leisure, relaxation and meals. The Buma Square even has a fitness club with a swimming pool, a hairdressing salon, a post office and a bank. There are also three different catering locations. Many employees want to take a break after several hours of work, so they use the restaurant services. I take a lunch break myself. The Quattro development will also include restaurant and other service facilities. We are already thinking of other ways of improving the comfort of those working at the Quattro Business Park as well. We are looking for nursery schools in the neighbourhood so that future employees would not have to search for a location close to their work where their child would be accepted to a nursery school. In the Onyx office building, Electrolux even has a room for breast-feeding mothers. Employees are now important for employers, so you have to create the best working conditions for them.
Which also means a high standard of the workplace itself.
Obviously, a modern office now looks completely different than before. First and foremost, it must meet stringent quality requirements. In practice, this means not just the height of 3 m, but also good lighting, humidification, air conditioning and temperature controllers. Air treatment is very important. There must be at least 30 m3/h per person. We use over 40 m3/h. What is important is to maintain the right humidity. Evaporators must pump steam so that a humidity of over 40 percent is achieved. The temperature in winter must be kept at around 21 Centigrade (plus/minus 1). In the summer, it should not exceed 23-24 Centigrade. It may sound strange, but ventilation, heating, humidifying and cooling is the second biggest cost item of such a project after the reinforced concrete. Tenants no longer ask if there is air conditioning, but what kind. Light intensity is also important: it must be 500 lux. It must be possible to freely arrange the interior, as you cannot use open space everywhere. Consequently, the entire infrastructure must be ready for connecting in various configurations. Often, the tenant changes after a couple of years, and then, we have to replace the entire fit-out within a few weeks to prepare it for the new needs.
This is not only about the structural power supply and Internet cabling, but also the cooling and heating systems. You also have to change the partitions, textures and colours.
What else do tenants expect?
Additional services, like a reception desk, access control, specialised rooms such as those for servers. We also comply with regulations by installing complete automatic fire-suppression systems. Every year, we run an evacuation exercise to prepare the employees for the possible threat.
To some extent, Krakow is seen as a nice place to live, but not necessarily to work in. On the other hand, the growth in office space contradicts this statement.
Krakow ranks fifth among European cities offering the best opportunities for the development of companies providing outsourced services. The appeal of Krakow is boosted by good air travel connections, low rents, good managerial staff and the many universities and colleges. Finally, it is a pleasant city to live in. You also need to bear in mind that we have become more credible after joining the EU. So it seems that this is also a good city for developments. It may not have been so in the past and the shortage of office space was very obvious. Now, however, the landlord’s market is coming to an end. Large developments like Trigranit or Quinland Private Golub are starting. Today, in the face of the financial crisis, it is difficult to say anything about the future of the market, but if the crisis is overcome, tens of thousands of square meters of office space will be built in Krakow every year. Note that the city is developing and so are local companies, but on top of this, global players are increasingly often investing here as well. So it seems that in the long term, Krakow has good opportunities for growth. The city also has a lot of potential. If the city develops, then obviously more modern office developments will be constructed, which is what we are counting on.
Interviewer: Jarosław Knap
|
