X-ray of Green Court Bucharest Office Complex

Location: North of Bucharest, 12 Gara Herastrau Street

Description:

•   3 modern office buildings
• 12 floors above the ground
•   52,000 sqm of leasable space
• 837 underground parking spaces

Developer: Skanska Development Romania

Infrastructure and structure contractor for buildings A & B: Octagon Contracting & Engineering under Skanska Construction Romania

Developer’s testimonial about the contractor:

“Skanska Construction appointed Octagon as construction partner for foundation and structural works on the Green Court Bucharest.  The cooperation was excellent and Octagon performed the works professionally and diligently meeting all of our expectations in terms of health and safety, quality and delivery time.” says Richard Burleigh, Country Manager, Skanska Construction Romania.

Biggest challenges faced by the contractor:

“The biggest challenge in the execution of this project was meeting the deadline, which was very tight.  But despite the schedule constraints, which were also amplified by technical issues that are unavoidable in any project, we managed to focus on our main targets and deliver the works on time.“ says Max Ene- OCTAGON’s  project manager for Green Court Bucharest.

Construction works performed by OCTAGON:

• Concrete works for infrastructure and superstructure of building A (3B+ GF+ 11F)
• Excavation;
• Diaphragm walls D 600;
• Anchorages;
•  Infrastructure works for building B;
• Concrete works for the superstructure of building B (3B + GF+ 11F)

GREEN features:

• energy efficient façade with high performance which reduces solar heat gains, the building’s heating up being significantly limited;
• natural daylight- over 75% of the building space has access to the daylight. Automatic lighting control system adjusts the lights according to the intensity of outside light resulting into lower energy consumption;
• containers for segregated waste;
•  solar panels- located on the roof of the building, used for domestic hot water;
• electrical plug- in for cars

Estimated benefits:

•  Lower utility bills- 50% less water consumed
• A healthier, more productive workplace-  30% more fresh air in the office
• More efficient lighting- 32% less energy consumed

OCTAGON’s staff involved in the construction of buildings A & B: 160 people.

Two landmark projects built by OCTAGON, made public debut in 2014

With lots of projects under development and new investments on the pipeline, 2014 was certainly a dynamic year for the office segment. And developers rolled the dice in favor of OCTAGON. The company made the best of the market opportunities and managed last year to deliver two major office buildings, both of them located in Bucharest: Green Court Bucharest – building B and Hermes Business Campus- building B.

How did we do it? It was not easy, but we somehow managed to master extremely tough site conditions, we put in a lot of hard work and used the latest technologies in building processes. Below are highlights from each project.

As green as it gets

What did the real estate giant Skanksa envision when they decided to develop the office complex Green Court Bucharest? Large open office spaces, easy to reach from any area of Bucharest, with lots of green elements, in order to create a healthy comfortable working environment.

Green Court Bucharest - building A

How did this concept translate into design? The project includes three office buildings stretching over 52,000 sqm, built in Bucharest’s office hub, at the crossroads of Barbu Văcărescu Blvd and Pipera Road, within five minutes walk from Aurel Vlaicu metro station. Skanska also thought of making the project as green as possible and thus implemented  “green” solutions, such as glass façade with low heat transfer, natural lighting in over  85% of the working areas, power stations for electric cars charging, bicycle parking areas and facilities such as showers and locker rooms.

OCTAGON was hired to build the infrastructure and superstructure of building A and the superstructure of building B and successfully delivered both projects in 2013 and 2104.

Building A has a GLA of 19,500 sqm, 12 floors and is 91% leased by clients such as Schneider Electric România, Orange România, LS TRAVEL RETAIL Romania. The building was acquired by real estate investor Globalworth Real Estate Investments Ltd for 44 million euro.

Building B has a total GLA of 18.000 mp, 12 floors and 3 underground parking levels, with 315 available parking spaces. The second phase of the project also features sustainable solutions to minimize the impact of the building on the environment and to significantly reduce operational costs.

Modern technologies such as energy efficient double façade, efficient lighting systems, equipped with movement and intensity sensors, were used.

Beating the odds

In 2010 Belgian developer Atenor Group decided to build their first project in Romania, right across Pipera metro station. Building a 78,000 sqm office complex in a moment when the market was on a downward path seamed, at the time, extremely ambitious. Four years later, the first of the three buildings was delivered by OCTAGON and the company is now working on building the second one.

It sure was and still is a challenging project, but so far, it has beaten the odds. Hermes Business Campus started in a moment when the entire real estate market was on a downward path and few companies were thinking of relocating or leasing spaces in large scale office schemes.

Hermes Business Campus- building B

While building the first office unit of the complex, Austrian general contract, Alpine Bau, went bankrupt and OCTAGON, which was Alpine’s subcontractor, took over the project and continued the works.

Building B covers 37,000 sqm, has eight floors above the ground plus technical floor and is fully leased.  The Embassy of Netherlands, Xerox, SNC Lavalin and Synevo IT are among the tenants of the building.

On the western façade photo voltaic cells were installed, thus ensuring 7% of the entire energy consumption for one year.

OCTAGON used 31,000 cm of concrete and 3,600 t of metal fittings for the construction of building B. Three hundred people worked on the construction site and the project was delivered in June 2014.

The office building is currently being BREEAM certified with Excellent rating on-design and post-construction, which represents the best certification a building can obtain in terms of sustainable and green features.

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OCTAGON CONTRACTING & ENGINEERING

More information here

Tel: (+40) 21 232 39 20

The Advisers/ Knight Frank: Office take- up in Bucharest up by 12% in H 1 2014. First building of Hermes Business Campus, delivered by OCTAGON, fully leased

Office take-up in Bucharest amounted to 132,000 sqm in H1 2014, up by 12% year-on-year, according to the latest survey of The Advisers/ Knight Frank. Pre- leases and relocations each accounted for 29% of leasing deals, while renewals represented another 20%. Notably, firm expansions and new market entries are on the rise- representing 22% of activity- supported by strengthening economic conditions.  The Romanian economy powered ahead in 2013, with GDP growth exceeding expectations, reaching 3.5%. Growth of approximately 2.5% is forecast for 2014. Business sentiment continues to improve, with more international firms considering Bucharest as a major outsourcing location in Central and Eastern Europe.

Green Court Bucharest- building A

Occupiers in the IT & C sector were the most active players in the first half of 2014, with telecommunication providers Vodafone and Orange signing the two largest deals. Vodafone agreed to prelease 16,000 sqm in the Bucharest One project with the option to further expand, while Orange leased 13,700 sqm in Phase one of Skanska’s Green Court, delivered by OCTAGON CONTRACTING & ENGINEERING in 2013. OCTAGON also built the superstructure of the second building of Green Court office complex, located in northern Bucharest on Gara Herastrau Street.

Another A class office development built by OCTAGON, which was fully leased, is the first building of Hermes Business Campus, stretching over 37,000 sqm and rising eight floors above the ground. The building also has 4 basements, one ground floor and one technical floor. OCTAGON has just finished building the infrastructure of the second building of the project and is now working on the structure.

Hermes Business Campus- building B

Bucharest has recently seen a rise in development activity, with a total of nine new and refurbished schemes completed in H 1 2014, providing 120,000 sqm of class A space. The development pipeline has also expanded and currently stands at 200,000 sqm; of this, 55,000 sqm is expected to cover over H2 2014.

Despite the increase in new supply, the average vacancy rate for class A and B stock fell by 6 percentage points year-on-year to 17.4%. This is largely on the back of significant lettings at completed buildings, including the recently delivered Floreasca Park, which was fully leased by The Advisers/ Knight Frank.

Over H 1 2014, headline rents across all major submarkets remained stable. While headline prime office rents are expected to remain in the range of 18- 18.5 US per sqm per month, over the second half of the year, incentives are likely to harden slightly.

Hermes Business Campus- foundation works on building C

Investment market

The first half of 2014 saw a marked increase in property investment activity, with total volumes reaching a remarkable 460 million USD. Investment volumes in 2014 already exceed those of 2013 and, with several prime assets on the  market, further major transactions are expected to be completed in the second half of the year. 2014 is on the track to surpass the total amount transacted over the last two years, potentially breaking 2010’s record of 543 million USD.

While transaction activity was dominated by domestic restructuring deals, investment demand remains robust, with both domestic and international effort focused on office and retail assets in Bucharest.

While transaction activity was dominated by domestic restructuring deals, investment demand remains robust, with both domestic and international interest largely focused on office and retail assets in Bucharest.

The largest deal in H 1 2014 saw investment fund Globalworth purchase the Upground complex in Pipera from Deutsche Bank’s RREEF for some 200 million Euro. The deal included the sale of a residential compound, as well as both BOC and BOB towers, for 110 million and 42 million Euro respectively.

While the current strong economic backdrop is attracting greater investor interest, the limited availability of prime office stock across major markets has proven to be a hindrance to activity. However, this is set to change, as Bucharest’s stock of class A buildings continues to increase, helping to improve office market conditions and offering a wide range of opportunities to international investors.

As a result, prime office yields in Bucharest have seen moderate compression over the last twelve months, hardening by 25 bps to stand at 8.00%. Sustained investment demand over the second half of the year is likely to drive prime yields below 8.00%.

OCTAGON CONTRACTING & ENGINEERING

More information HERE

Tel: (+4) 021 232 39 20