Graphisoft Park plans €42 mln-€44 mln in investments by 2008

Graphisoft Park, which will soon list 10,631,674 shares on the Budapest Stock Exchange (BÉT), plans to build a further 27,000 square meters of office space, 35,000 square meters of garage and storage space and 1,320 enclosed parking spaces by 2008. The company already owns the 16,900-square-meter business and research park of the same name near the Danube in the north of Budapest as well as the 82,350-square-meter parcel of land on which the park is built.
Although Graphisoft earlier paid for its real estate investments with its own resources, it expects to borrow €40 million to pay for the further planned investments. Graphisoft Park warned in the prospectus that the site of the park is subject to several risks. Built on the site of a former gas factory, the land around the park could contain industrial contaminants which require cleanup. The site is also that of an old Roman settlement. Before construction of the park began, archaeological excavations took as long as eight months to be completed before building could start. The site, on the banks of the Danube, is subject to flooding as well.
Currently 31 companies rent or have contracts to rent space in Graphisoft Park. Just four of the companies rent 60% of all space in the park, and this rate could increase with further developments, according to the prospectus.