OPG Property Professionals, the team in charge of project development and commercialisation of the OFF Piotrkowska Center in Lodz, opens up a new chapter in the rich history of the old Franciszek Ramisch’s cotton factory. A few months prior to the completion of the new TEAL OFFICE and SEPIA OFFICE investments, the company, along with Mayor of Lodz Hanna Zdanowska and the Investor Service & International Cooperation Bureau, officially welcomed new participants of the OFF’s creative ecosystem. The level of commercialisation of the new buildings has now reached 65 percent.
The event offered a moment to reflect on the origins and what still lies in store for one of most popular mixed-use spaces in Lodz. Michal Stys, OPG’s CEO and the creative mind behind OFF Piotrkowska Center project, emphasised the role of diversity throughout the whole development process. “At the beginning, OFF became a new home for designers, architects, freelancers and other liberal professions. After that came the offbeat cuisine – today you can eat a crocodile steak at the African restaurant or grab a delicious soup at the ramen bar. To be creative means to stay open-minded for new things,” he explained in the opening speech.
And by new things Michal Stys means companies focused on new technologies and business services. OPG Property Professionals has found new tenants for the TEAL OFFICE and SEPIA OFFICE, two new projects developed within the OFF Piotrkowska Center. BinarApps is a dynamically growing, full-service IT product development company from Lodz, which provides made to measure responsive web design solutions, mobile apps and e-commerce services for startups. Grafton Recruitment Poland, on the other hand, is one of the largest recruitment companies in Europe, specialised in providing professionals across the spectrum of business and industry, including IT and telecommunications.
New office spaces on OFF Piotrkowska Center will work in a close synergy with the CoWalk HUB – a new place that provides unique platform to work, learn and grow for creative freelancers, local IT communities, startups and scale-up companies. CoWalk HUB is now home to Le Polish Bureau, a Technical Department for UNIT9, one of the world’s most renowned interactive production companies, specialised in commercial applications for virtual reality and augmented reality, among many other things.
New investments, new tenants, new jobs
Mayor of Lodz Hanna Zdanowska emphasized the importance of places such as OFF Piotrkowska Center. “Revitalisation and new construction projects are being developed on an unprecedented scale in Lodz. In this place we have both, which results in new business locations and jobs. I’d also like to remind that by the end of April the unemployment rate in Lodz had dropped to 6.2 percent and is still shrinking, fuelling the demand for such spaces. This is thanks in no small part to the young, thriving companies that want to operate in Lodz,” said the Mayor.
New tenants mean new jobs coming to OFF Piotrkowska Center. “We began our search last year and once we talked with OPG we stopped looking for anything else. It turned out that we share the same vision of growth of Lodz’s IT sector. OFF is a great place for people who we work with, our employees,” said Maciej Krasowski, co-founder of BinarApps. “Our team is constantly growing. We plan to hire about twenty new people by the end of the year, increasing our ranks up to 80 employees,” he added.
“When we were analysing other options, we couldn’t feel this specific spirit. There’s plenty of typical, glass-walled office buildings that lack this creative atmosphere. We asked our employees where would they like to work. Their choice was clear,” explained Mariusz Lemparty from Grafton Recruitment Poland.
“Original, non-mainstream character of this place matches UNIT9 culture perfectly. I hope that this new ecosystem will attract more companies with similar creative and technological capabilities,” said Maciej Zasada, co-founder of Le Polish Bureau.
“New tenants bring something completely new to OFF Piotrkowska Center, but at the same time they all fall within our vision of the creative ecosystem. By launching and developing new spaces, we support the growth of the most innovative companies in Lodz,” Michal Stys summed up.
Both development projects are due to be completed by the end of the summer. New participants of the OFF’s creative ecosystem will move in to their new offices in the autumn. The investment is worth 34 million PLN in total. OPG Property Professionals is responsible for the full investment process and commercialisation on behalf of the investor.