Guiding Lines: Some Choose Prestige, Some Choose Comfort

The largest deal in the first half of 2008 was the sale of about 101,000 sq.m in a multifunctional complex under construction on Ulitsa Kozhevnicheskaya by Otkrytiye-nedvizhimost (Open Real Estate) to German investment fund KanAm Grund Kapitalanlagege sellschaft. And the largest rental contract was signed by TNK-BP for two buildings measuring a total of 37,000 sq.m in the Western Gates business complex.

Among the most active tenants of space in modern high quality business centers, GVA Sawyer names investment and realtor companies, companies engaged in construction and development and HR companies – all of which make up about 9 per cent of applications. The most passive market players are non-commercial organizations, and transport and logistics companies, which make up about 2 per cent of total demand.

According to CB Richard Ellis, 23 per cent of the total volume of deals is carried out by international companies. Sale/purchase deals for office space makes up 30 per cent of the total volume. In the beginning of the year, 83 per cent of all sale/purchase and rental deals were in respect to new build premises.

The profile of activity of a company affects its requirements for an office. For example, according to Novoye Kachestvo, the main requirement for investment funds, large finance, auditing and oil companies and also for the opening of representative offices of large, regional industrial companies is class A premises. Well known advertising companies, recruitment companies, foreign car representatives and development and management companies also prefer class A premises, considers NAI Russia.

IT and retail firms, real estate agencies, and insurance, transport and logistics companies are more interested in class B premises. However Vladimir Zhuravlev, commercial director at NAI Russia thinks that the activity of a company has little to do with the class of premises it occupies – it is a question of prestige and financial position.

The location of an office is an important factor. Roman Shcherbak, deputy director for commercial real estate at GVA Sawyer notes that large Russian and foreign companies that carry out representative functions, irrespective of the sphere of activity, are usually located in the city center. Logistics companies with warehouses not far from their offices and IT companies usually choose locations closer to the MKAD or the Third Transport Ring. Offices of western firms are often located close to the airports, for example Ford’s office is located in the Khimki business park.

In 2008, the most demanded premises have been those measuring up to 300 sq.m. According to GVA Sawyer, abut 44 per cent of deals were for such areas so far this year. Companies involved in raw materials are interested in offices measuring more than 500 sq.m, irrespective of the number of employees. Mikhail Gets, managing partner at Novoye Kachestvo tells how a large regional industrial company has rented 1,000 sq.m in the Tower-2000 business center, even though he supposes only 10 people will work there. “Such a measure is effective in influencing the partners and clients of large companies,” he reiterates.

According to Olga Yasko, regional director of the analytics department at Colliers International, large spaces, irrespective of their location, are attractive to the automobile and media market and also call centers. Oil companies, above all, prefer separately standing buildings for safety reasons.

Special requirements for offices are most often held by creative companies such as designers. It is these that ask for high ceilings, unusual configurations and historical views from the windows.

The majority of tenants do not put forward specialre1uirements for premises. Although there is one exception. According to Colliers International, above all this concerns banks, which have requirements on the possible loading on overlappings (if they plan to have a depositary in the office), the need for a separate entrance and many other things.

More recently experts at GVA Sawyer have come across such a situation in selecting a new office premises for Wincor Nixdorf – the largest manufacturer of specialized banking and retail equipment. The main condition of the client was the technical possibility to organize a professional show room capable o holding the company’s complete line of products in the building. This includes various cash dispensers, the loading on overlappings from which can reach up to 900 kg per sq.m. This demand was difficult to fulfill as not even new office projects meet these requirements. The company managed to find suitable premises in a class B business center on Ulitsa Krasnoproletarskaya. The deciding factor in renting the premises was the characteristics of the building, in particular, the safe loading on each of the floors of the building is not less than 2.5 tonnes per sq.m.