The group of tenants in the buildings realized by Echo Investment is getting bigger and bigger; Allegro, Nordea, Nokia Networks, Savills, White and Case, Rockwell and mBank joined the group this year. More than 130 companies, with whom we have strong relations, have their headquarters in the offices realized by Echo Investment. The majority of them are enterprises from the sector of shared services, which grow dynamically, increase employment and often need additional space. We provide them with proper conditions to further development – says Rafał Mazurczak, Member of the Board of Echo Investment, who is responsible for the office sector of the company.
Except for Q22, Echo Investment has already completed the building of five offices. The new structures are situated in Gdańsk, Katowice, Krakow, Wrocław and Łódź. They offer more than 80 000 sq. m of leasable area in total. However, the company plans further investments. At present, the developer has four offices of the total size amounting to 70 000 sq. m under construction and other investments offering 200 000 sq. m are in the preparatory stage.
We are proud about completion of Q22. The Varsovians liked this building and its elegant architecture was awarded several times in the important industry competitions. Q22 arouses interest among tenants, which is especially important to us. At present, the building is rented in 80 per cent, and we are going to increase this rate to 90 per cent by the end of this year. It is a perfect result, taking the high vacancy rate on the Warsaw real estate market into consideration. Both level and pace of lease undoubtedly contributed to the next stage in the investment process. We signed a preliminary sale contract concerning Q22 with Invesco Real Estate during the last days of October. Its parameters are the best evidence that our project is attractive – adds Mazurczak.
Other office realizations of Echo Investment also arouse interest among investors. The example is the largest transaction in Central and Eastern Europe from the first six months of 2016. The South African Redefine Properties Fund became the major shareholder of the Echo Poland Properties Platform, which obtained eight offices of the total leasable size amounting to nearly 125 000 sq. m from Echo Investment and which is currently in the process of taking over the next seven buildings.