EXPO 2000 Office Park

Raiffeisen Property Holding International was recently awarded at the European Property Awards for their project Expo 2000 Office Park in Sofia, in a festive ceremony that took place on October 24th in London.

RPHI’s flagship project in Sofia was awarded Best Office Development and Best Office Architecture for its latest building Phase 4. To this date Building 4 is the only LEED PLATINUM certified building in Bulgaria, and the SEE region within the past two years.

Expo 2000 Office Park is now home to the best tenant mix in Sofia, which includes leading international companies from various industries. Elder tenants such as Ericsson, Microsoft, Raiffeisen Bank and BMW have grown together with the project, while new-comers Novartis, Oracle and Wolf Theiss have completed the mix whilst signing longest term leases (10 years). Notably, the Expo team have completed the most sophisticated office fit-out to date for international law firm Wolf Theiss. Having taken the last remaining space in building 4, they hired top interior designers Viarchitects and were awarded “Best Office Design” at the same ceremony in London.

The International Property Awards are on their 26th year and they are judged by an independent panel of over 80 industry experts. Judging focuses on design, quality, innovation, and most importantly - commitment to sustainability. Expo’s excellent green credentials (LEED Gold for Phase 3 and LEED Platinum for Phase 4) impressed the jury. The judging panel is chaired by Lord Caithness, Lord Best, The Earl of Liverpool, and Lord Thurso, members of the House of Lords in the UK Parliament.

expo-2000.net

propertyawards.net

The awards gala, held on April 19th at the Radisson BLU Hotel in Bucharest, brought together some of the top-performing firms and professionals operating in the SEE region. Chosen by members of Europa Property’s esteemed SEE Real Estate Awards Academy, this year’s winners were recognized for their continued market success and achievements in the SEE region.

The 13th annual SEE Real Estate Awards Gala & Forum is the only event of its kind covering the South Eastern European region.Raiffeisen Property International Holding was awarded “Office Developer of the Year”, and further crowning a successful evening, RPHI’s Adina Welsh picked up the highly coveted “Professional of the Year”-award.

expo-2000.net

seerealestateawards.com

The event was celebrated on October 12th by the RPHI team, the tenants and all companies involved in the development: Strabag (the main contractor), Bavaria Air Engineering (site supervision), Hoffmann Janz / UMA (the architects) and many others.  The local team took advantage of the opportunity to welcome the new tenants signed up for the Phase 4 building: Novartis, Ericsson, Fox Channels, Bwin and Oracle.

The construction started in October 2015 and was completed ahead of schedule. The first occupiers, Fox Channels and Ericsson, have started operations as early as October 24th, 2017. The building was completed in line with the latest technical specifications for a premium office environment: it boasts cooled ceilings and chilled beam (the first  in Sofia), free-standing, auto-dimming LED lights, triple-glazed French windows, state of the art Schüco façade, BMS stoppers on the openable windows. It features two underground parking levels and extensive park-like green areas. The project is a letting success, having been 85% pre-let one year ahead of completion.

Congratulations to the development team and a warm welcome to the new tenants!

General contractor Strabag has delivered the new construction milestone 2 weeks ahead of schedule. The building will bring another 12,000 sqm GLA of office space to the Expo 2000 Office Park. Phase IV is scheduled for completion in July 2017. The first tenants are expected to move in in September 2017.

The building aims to obtain LEED Platinum certification. It will be the first building in Sofia to employ chilled ceiling technology and one of the first to have triple glazing façade. The façade shall display openable elements every grid, each having a stop valve to the HVAC system activated when opened. The building has been designed for minimizing running costs and eliminating redundant consumption.  With a net height of 3m and regular shape floor plates the building will offer tenants efficient lay outs and unique views from 10 corner offices on each floor. Ample parking possibilities are supplied by 2 levels of underground parking – adding another 277 garage places.

Ericsson Telecommunications Bulgaria to lease 1,800 sqm, taking the entire second floor of the new building, with an option to expand up to 2,500 sqm GLA.  Phase IV is scheduled for completion in July 2017 – the first tenants are expected to move in in September 2017. The transaction confirms the growing trend on Sofia’s office market for early pre-lets, as vacancy levels have shrunk significantly in the past 2 years and the pipeline of new projects is rather thin.

The relocation to Phase IV is triggered by expansion needs, but also by Ericsson’s commitment to being an environmentally responsible company – Phase IV is targeting LEED platinum certification. A growing number of leading corporations have made ‘green policies’ part of their corporate culture and seek to lead their industries by example. In terms of real estate needs this translates into consistently shortlisting real estate premises with international ‘green’ certification.

We are proud to announce that on December 9th, 2015 the latest installment (Phase 3) of the Expo 2000 Office Park in Sofia was awarded the "Green Building of the Year" distinction.

The Building of the Year Awards are the mark of peer recognition for the real estate industry in Bulgaria. The prestigious competition has entered its 15th year and it is set up under the patronage of the Mayor of Sofia (Mrs Yordanka Fandakova) and the Minister for Regional Development (Mrs. Liliana Pavlova). The selection of participating buildings is evaluated by a jury of 24 prominent peers in the sectors of architecture, development, banking, and real estate consulting.

The prize was awarded to:

• Bernd Steingruber and Adina Welsh on behalf of the investor – RPHI
• Maya Yovchva (architect) of ProArch and
• Johann Pölzl of Strabag (main contractor)

On February 18th 2016, Expo signed on Microsoft for the top floor of building Phase 3, thus achieving 100% occupancy.  Microsoft has previously been a tenant in Expo’s Phase 1, and prior to that in the Gogol building (both owned by RPHI). The company has decided to implement its latest office concept in our newest building and signed an eight year lease.  Phase 3 green credentials were a decisive factor in the office move - among them also the LEED Gold certification (Phase 3 is one of only two buildings in Sofia to receive this accolade). Microsoft is a frontrunner in the field of environment sustainability.

On September 20th we have opened the construction site for our fourth and largest building of the Expo 2000 Office Park. It will add 12,500 sqm of prime office space to our existing office stock. The building is scheduled for completion mid-2017.

We aim to offer a modern building employing the latest technologies for a prime office environment. With the completion of this final instalment we improve the overall connectivity of our buildings by linking the garages and adding access to one newly built main boulevard. We will relocate the on-ground tenant parking to our extended garage level (boasting one extra floor under Phase 4) thus leaving ample room for extending the green areas and offering more recreational space to our tenants. There will be an on-site bus stop and a cycling lane to the next metro station.

Already, the tenant interest is strong – the demand is generated both from the existing tenants of our office park as well as from new companies looking to upgrade their existing premises.

We are proud to announce that our building Phase III (completed in 12/2014 and hosting the HQ of Raiffeisenbank Bulgaria) has been awarded the LEED GOLD certificate August this year. We are fully committed to developing ‘Green’ and sustainable office buildings and aim for at least Gold level again for Phase IV.

The Bulgarian office of Raiffeisen Property Holding International is proud to announce the successful completion of the 4th office building in the Expo 2000 Office Park, which is already fully let. The latest addition of over 7,200 sqm GLA has been completed in November 2014, one month ahead of schedule.

Built by general contractor Strabag, the building employs innovative energy saving technology using underground water for cooling and heating; this saves 228 tons of CO2 per year, which would equal emissions of 20 trips by car around the globe. Furthermore it is one of the first buildings in Sofia to boast a live green façade.

As of January this year, it is home to the new headquarters of Raiffeisen Bank Bulgaria, who leased over 70% of the space. The bank already occupied 5,000 sqm in the second phase (completed in 2008) of the office complex and has used the opportunity to consolidate its main operation into a single location. The headquarters of the bank are the latest addition to an already excellent tenant mix, including tenants such as Microsoft, L’Oreal, Ericsson, BMW and Sitel. Expo 2000 continues to cement its position as one of the most attractive office locations in Sofia.

On February, 3rd 2014 the topping-out ceremony of “Expo Phase 3” in Sofia took place. Phase 3 is the fourth office building within this area and provides a gross floor area of 10.300 m² – Phases 0, 1 and 2 are fully let. In collaboration with the general contractor STRABAG and architect Maya Jovcheva the construction schedule was successfully kept.

Beside the modern architecture, Phase 3 has an outstanding energy saving design. An efficient building management system monitors and reduces power consumption. Special emphasis should be placed on using ground water for cooling the office building. The completion of Phase 3 is expected in the third quarter of 2014.