On the 29th of October 2013 the ceremony of placing a cornerstone under the Kapelanka 42 office complex took place. Skanska Property Poland is building the structure on the crossing of Kapelanka and Kobierzyńska streets in Cracow. The project is the first office sector investment of the company in the city.
Both city's and Skanska's board representatives took part in the event. The erection act was signed by the President of the City Council Bogusław Kośmider, Plenipotentiary of the President of the City of Cracow from Entrepreneurship Department Jan Okoński, Head of General Construction Department for the City of Cracow in Skanska S.A. Maciej Karwacki and Regional Director in Skanska Property Poland Bartosz Kalinowski. Except for the erection act, a special tube included also main pages of regional papers for the 29th of October.
We have thoroughly considered the choice of Cracow as a localization for our next office building – said Bartosz Kalinowski, Regional Director in Skanska Property Poland. This is not only a beautiful city rich in history and architecture, but also one of the most important business centre in our country with a huge potential. One of Cracow's advantages are crowds of ambitious and well educated employees. Moreover, the city has perfect communication with the rest of Poland and Europe. Because of that, the companies from business services like BPO or SSC are developing there in rapid pace. Currently Cracow is considered to be most important centres of these branches not only in our country, but in the whole region – he adds.
The complex will consist of two 'A' class office buildings. Both buildings will offer a total of 30 000 sqm. Each will have 9 surface and 3 underground stations. The users will be able to make use of over 400 parking spots in an underground garage connecting the two buildings and on the surface level. Medusa Group is responsible for the architectural design.
The first stage of the construction included the creation of underground garage for complex. Currently ongoing are the works on the surface level. The first building will be completed in the second quarter of 2014. The general contractor is Skanska S.A.. Skanska Property Poland is responsible for the commercialization of the complex.
Kapelanka 42 arouses a lot of interest on the Cracow's market. We're currently holding negotiations with several leaseholders interested in having their seats in this object. We are planning to sign deals with a number of them by the end of the year. After we've done that, the level of commercialization of the complex will reach 60 %. The leaseholders appreciate the fact that Skanska builds green buildings which guarantee comfortable working conditions. It will help the leaseholder's workers to reach their full potential – comments Bartosz Kalinowski.
Kapelanka 42 is being constructed in accordance with the requirements of LEED ecological certificate. The location was the first office building in Cracow to gain LEED pre-certificate on Gold level. The investment will also apply for the EU GreenBuilding certificate.