Park Atrium in Budapest.
BP will move its Budapest office to Agora Budapest. Currently under development by HB Reavis, the offices will house more than 1,800 of BP’s Global Business Services staff in 22,000 sqm of space from 2020 according to the schedule.
The deal is seen as the biggest letting in the Budapest office market so far this year. The first phase of Agora Budapest consists of the 34,500 sqm Agora Tower and 32,500 sqm Agora Hub. The latter is now fully leased, while the former still has 6,000 sqm of space remaining available to tenants.
In what HB Reavis describes as one of the largest and most complex leasing transactions of 2018, the European regional developer agreed a circa 20,000 sqm prelease with Raiffeisen Bank. The bank will establish its Budapest headquarters for around 1,300 staff at the 34,000 sqm Agora Tower, the first building scheduled to be completed in 2020.
Agora Budapest is being developed in accordance with BREEAM and WELL sustainability precertification.
“When designing offices, HB Reavis bears in mind the well-being of the people that will be using the workspace and emphasizes the importance of the communities within,” the developer says.
“Incorporating these notions in development transforms modern constructions into spaces where health and productivity come first, where community buildings play a major role, and into meeting points where local life can thrive. On the other side, BP was in search of a flexible workplace that combines business and lifestyle with communal functionality to create a supportive environment on multiple levels,” HB Reavis adds.
Redeveloping Area
The complex, designed by the London-based Make Architects and Hungary’s Finta Studio, is planned to deliver WELL “Gold” and BREEAM “Outstanding” and “Communities” certified office, retail and service space, which will be utilized by the local population as well as redeveloping the area adjacent to the Árpád híd metro station.
The phased Agora project is due to be completed by 2023, providing space for 12,000 workers. Construction of the next phase is aimed to start in 2020 with three further buildings offering office and retail space.
In another letting on Váci út an international service provider has preleased circa 4,000 sqm of office space in Building F at Atenor’s Váci Greens office park. With the arrival of the new tenant in June 2020, the occupancy rate of the building will be around 50%. “The first four buildings of Váci Greens, consisting of nearly 80,000 sqm have a 100% occupancy rate. Buildings E and F are under construction and offering an additional 50,000 sqm. Váci Greens F will be handed over in the second quarter of 2020 and Váci Greens E will be delivered by the third quarter,” comments Nikolett Püschl, development and leasing manager of Atenor.
Váci Greens will provide 130,000 sqm of offices in what it defines as a “campus development”, consisting of six buildings surrounding an internal garden and passage. The project has attained BREEAM “Excellent” certification.
Both HB Reavis and Atenor commenced construction of their ambitious, speculative office projects at a difficult time in the Budapest office market when vacancy rates were high, however vacancy now stands at 7% and tenants have to plan far in advance in order to acquire large contiguous office spaces at the prime end of the Budapest office market.
It is now becoming increasingly difficult to source sites for such large developments in the Váci Corridor, meaning developers are beginning to look at other areas of the city for the development of office complexes.
