Portland Trust won two awards at this year’s Central & Eastern European Quality Awards held in Warsaw and attended by over 700 delegates from throughout the region. The first award of the evening was the “Aiming for Net Zero Building of the Year” which was won by J8 Office Park in Bucharest, constructed by Bogart, and completed by Portland in October 2021. The building is highly efficient with innovative HVAC and MEP technology and has set new standards in the office sector.

The second award was “SEE Office Building of the Year” which was picked up by Robert Neale, founder and managing director of Portland Trust who said: “many thanks to the Portland team, our architects Chapman Taylor, MEP designers Cundall, Erste Bank Vienna our debt financing bank and Ares Corporation our long-term equity partner. It is a great building which has raised the bar in terms of health & safety, ventilation, and wellness”.

Positioned in the North-Western part of Bucharest, just a few minutes from the Jiului metro station and the Expoziţiei - Piața Presei area, J8 Office Park was the first office building to incorporate the latest technologies in health and reduced carbon footprint, being certified with BREEAM Outstanding and Well Health and Safety. The project has reached a new level of performance in terms of working environment and ESG standards, with exceptional air quality close to the hygienic requirements of the medical industry.

The building:

- is supplied 100% with "green" electricity and has solar panels for water heating,

- has a ventilation system that takes in only 100% fresh air in the building,

- has touch-free systems in the common areas of the building,

- contains HEPA H14 filters in the ventilation system which capture up to 99.995% of microscopic contaminants and UV-C/UVGI lamps in the Air Handling Units as an additional barrier to viruses and bacteria,

- has Air Handling Units with rubber smooth internal edges to prevent any particle build-up and allow easy cleaning – used in hospitals and medical facilities

- contains UVC-light in elevators to deep clean the surfaces when the lift cabin is empty and a UVC-light ventilator which provides clean air at head height in the cabin

- is fitted with moulded bathroom wash hand basins from a Corian material which does not support the growth of bacteria - recommended for surfaces in medical facilities