Tricity is an attractive goal for foreign investors. Last year is a good example. When it comes to attracting foreign investments, the year 2015 was as good as 2014 for Tricity. We completed 11 new projects and 3 re-investments, which gives over 2500 new work places. Similarly to the previous years, projects from the USA and Scandinavian countries were dominant, especially from Norway – comments Marcin Faleńczyk, Invest in Pomerania.
The entities in the sector of modern services for business have the greatest influence on the Tricity market. It is worth mentioning about an investment of the American company State Street, a global leader in the financial industry which is going to hire even 1200 people as a target. It is one of the biggest investments in Pomerania within last years. The region is becoming an important IT center which is reflected by development of present companies and new undertakings of foreign entities. A tendency that may be observed with the influx of new investments is the fact that Tricity is directly placed on short lists of investors considering service and IT projects in Poland. Our region has recently aroused a great popularity among IT companies which dynamically operate in Eastern Europe. The launching of new centers was announced by Ciklum – IT company with a headquarters in Ukraine – as well as Luxoft and Epam which conduct business activities across the eastern border – adds Marcin Faleńczyk, Invest in Pomerania.
Development of present companies and new foreign investments in Tricity contribute to development of the regional office market. According to data of Cushman & Wakefield concerning the first three quarters of 2015 in regional cities, Tricity is on the third place (after Cracow and Wrocław) taking resources of office area into account, and on the second place (after Cracow) due to volume of transactions.
Resources of modern office area in Tricity were extended by over 73 000 sq. m in 2015 reaching the level of ca. 580 000 sq. m. In the first three quarters of the previous year, the volume of transactions for office areas amounted to about 77 000 sq. m. We are waiting for data from the fourth quarter, but we forecast that 2015 will be a record-breaking year on the Tricity market due to size of all the concluded lease contracts – comments Adam Schroeder, negotiator in Section of Regional Cities in Department of Office Areas, Cushman & Wakefield.
The biggest transaction concluded in 2015 on the Tricity market was renting of over 14 000 sq. m in State Street in the Alchemia complex in Gdańsk. Last year was a record-breaking for our company due to many aspects. We rented nearly 25 thousand sq. m in Alchemia and companies such as State Street, Alexander Mann Solutions or Wipro IT Services joined the group of our tenants. We completed building of the second stage of Alchemia and we started realization of the third stage at the same time. It was a very busy but also a very successful year for our company – comments Maciej Brożek, Proxy for Development, Torus. It is worth mentioning that the second stage of Alchemia was considered as the Best New Office of the Year in Poland in the competition Eurobuild Awards 2015. At present, Torus is realizing the third stage of Alchemia which will deliver nearly 36 000 sq. m. The completion of the building is planned on the fourth quarter of 2017.
The current and the following year will be as good as 2015 for the Tricity office market. According to Cushman & Wakefield, there will be over 170 000 sq. m of modern office area in the years 2016-2017, the great majority of which is planned on the following year. There will be ca. 50 000 sq. m of office area in 2016, however, it is worth mentioning that ca. 25-30 per cent of them have already been rented. We forecast that there will be a supply gap in Tricity in 2016, which may cause an increase in number of pre-lease transactions for office projects planned on 2017 – adds Adam Schroeder.
Tricity has definitely developed as an office market and it took critical mass which allows to compete with the biggest investments in the country – adds Maciej Brożek, Torus.