The year 2023 is not over yet, and the largest business center in Poland can already announce that this year will be record-breaking. In the first days of December, the level of contracts reached m.kw 50,000, and contracts are waiting to be signed, allowing for a forecast result of m.kw 53,000 or even 55,000. Summing up 2022, Olivia Centre could boast of reaching the level of 30 thousand m.kw. covered by the lease agreements.
The previous record year was 2018, when for the first time in the history of this 11-year project, the commercialization of leasable space at the level of 40,000 sqm was achieved. m.kw. We managed to beat this result already in September ,” says Michał Klepczyński, Leasing Director at Olivia Centre. “Most of the contracts are related to the renewal of the contracts of the existing residents of Olivia Centre, but this group also includes new residents, and what is particularly important for us, among the 5 new companies, 4 are service companies, which allows us to expand the offer of services available to Olivia employees and residents of the Tri-City.
The new services include the café and confectionery Ciacho bez Cukier, abranch of Pekao S.A., a global tycoon on the vehicle rental market, Enterprise, and a showroom for the sale of apartments by the Belgian developer BPI S.A.
This year’s result gives us great satisfaction – emphasizes Maciej Kotarski, director of Olivia Centre. – We have signed contracts for such a high volume of space in extremely demanding times and market realities. The evolution affects the entire labour market, and we manage to keep up the pace. Last year, we had as many as 18 contracts concluded with new residents, which was a record in the history of our project, so it would be difficult to expect that we will be able to reach such a high level this year as well. During the period of the greatest market turmoil, i.e. since 2020, our team has acquired as many as 46 new residents, who have taken over 30 thousand residents. m.kw. lease area. Among them are companies such as AMS, Capgemini, Graphcore, Just Join IT, Nike, Polskie Sieci Elektroenergetyczne S.A., Pekao SA Santander, SoftServe, SPEEDNET.
At the same time, it is worth emphasizing that departures to other locations outside Olivia Centre are marginal: within 4 years, only 4 companies, occupying slightly more than 1000 m.kw, decided to change their location. In addition, the level of commercialization of space in the entire center is currently over 90% and is still growing, which also allows us to conclude that the attractiveness of the center in the eyes of the market is increasing.
In my opinion, 2023 is the most difficult year for the market over the last 15 years,” emphasizes Maciej Kotarski. Throughout the country, there is a growing vacancy rate, a significant stagnation, and in Warsaw even a decrease in the volume of the entire market. Observing this, investors decided to suspend virtually all construction of new office buildings in Gdansk, accompanied by an ongoing price war. All the more credit goes to the commercialization team at Olivia Centre, which is able to bring profits even in such demanding times.
