Europe House owners try to lure small tenants, too

Austria’s Europolis investment fund, owning Europe House office building of Piata Victoriei in Bucharest, is going to also seek small firms to fill in the entire space of the building, as soon as one of its main tenants, Oracle, has left the building for a space in Floreasca area.

“For the time being we are not worried about the occupancy rate. At any rate, we want to re-launch the original strategy of the project and resume rentals to small firms that need narrower spaces,” stated Helmut Neubauer, Europolis Romania manager. Oracle will move to the northern part of Bucharest, in Floreasca Business Park complex developed by Portland Trust. On the other hand, Neubauer stated he expected rents in Europe House to rise by as much 10% because of the positioning of the building, as well as public transport facilities of Piata Victoriei. Moreover, Europe House is one of the first office buildings finalised in Bucharest in 2002, when contracts signed by Globe Trade Center (GTC) developer with the first tenants, including Oracle, stood at about 18 dollars/square metre. At present, trading values in Piata Victoriei revolve around 20-22 euros/square metre. A spring report by the investment fund mentioned Europe House would be put out for sale as the investment period of the vehicle expires. Nevertheless, Neubauer says he is not considering this option on the short term. “As an investor, you also have to sell to do business, but at least on the short term we’re not considering selling Europe House,” explained Europolis manager. Europe House building was valued at around 48.7m euros, according to the latest report of the Austrian group, published in spring. For this year, the investment fund, which owns another two office buildings domestically, representing the first development stage of Sema Park project, announced it would particularly focus on the management of finished buildings and less on the construction of some new projects. Europolis also develops an office complex, Orhideea Tower, in Bucharest, with investments to amount to 117m euros. The market value of projects Europolis owns in Romania stands at 164.8m euros, while properties being built will draw investments worth above 700m euros by 2011, according to line with the company’s report.