The Advisers/Knight Frank brokered the relocation and expansion transaction of the company OSF Global Services in United Business Center building in Iasi, on 1,100 sq. m. The new headquarters is part of the mixed-use project Palas Iasi, including 28,000 sq. m office spaces and 60,000 sq. m commercial spaces. The Advisers/Knight Frank has also brokered the relocation of the operations of OSF Global Services in Brasov. The company offers worldwide IT solutions in 17 countries in America, Europe and Asia. In Romania, OSF Global Services is present through five development centres in the country and its headquarters in Bucharest.
Following the successful expansion of the Webhelp headquarters in Bucharest, The Advisers/Knight Frank has also brokered the opeing of a new Webhelp centre in Ploiesti. Therefore, in 2Q 2014, Webhelp will open a new office of approx. 800 sq. m in Hippodrome Office Center, situated the Oil and Gas University in Ploiesti. This is the fourth Webhelp centre in the country. The multinational company is specialized in outsourcing, with more than 22,000 employees worldwide and more than 1,400 in Romania, located in Bucharest, Ploiesti and Galati.
The increasing interest of the companies for opening offices in the country is mainly motivated by the business expansion. If only one office exists in Bucharest, the business is limited at a certain level. Moreover, in some cases an operational need is involved, as opening a centre outside bucharest will better serve the local clients.
„In the recent years, the main cities in Romania have benefited from investments both in commercial and office premises and the opening of an operational centre in this context is being therefore facilitated. We anticipate in the following period several expansion projects of the IT&C companies in the country to materialize, as well as of other type of companies, such as consultancy and production. Cities such as Iasi, Timisoara, Cluj-Napoca and Brasov are already on the companies’ radar, companies considering the opening of offices outside Bucharest (with a collective office stock of 440,000 sq. m), while Ploiesti is preferred for its proximity to Bucharest. The profile of certain companies could better match certain cities in the country, this aspect being visible in how profitable is the respective business.” Horatiu Florescu, President &CEO The Advisers/Knight Frank
From The Advisers/Knight Frank’s team experience, the multinational clients of some companies are imposing the condition that the companies have several independent centres where to conduct business, in order to insure the continuity no matter the factors which could perturb one of the centres. (source: The Advisers/Knight Frank)
Human resources are another important factor: the companies looking for Russian and German speakers are finding them easier in cities such as Iasi and Brasov respectively. Not the least some of the cities are chosen as they are strong university centres providing young, educated labour: Iasi, Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara or Brasov.
Generally, smaller operation costs of a centre outside Bucharest are mainly influenced by the lower labour costs and less by the level of rents for the offices spaces.
The office spaces offer in the country became lately more generous for A class conditions. Projects totaling approx. 50,000 sq. m are announced in 2014 in Cluj-Napoca and Timisoara. These are adding to a collective stock of approx. 440,000 sq. m office spaces in Cluj-Napoca, Iasi, Timisoara and Brasov. Considering the transportation means, most of the targeted cities by the companies are reachable also by air, while cities such as Ploiesti or Brasov are close enough to Bucharest to be reachable by car.
In 2013, the company The Advisers/Knight Frank kept for the 4th consecutive year the largest market share on the office rentals segment. The average area of the lease transactions brokered by the company is approx. 2,000 sq. m, and the total area rented in 2013 has exceeded 65,000 sq. m
