Skanska Property Poland has strengthened its position in the business center of Warsaw. The company has signed an agreement on the rights of perpetual usufruct, a right granting long-term use of real estate, on the land plot near ONZ Rondabout. Currently, the Ilmet office building is located on this plot. In addition, the company has bought the Warsaw One project, which was designed by the previous owner. In the transaction process the seller was advised by Knight Frank.
Skanska’s latest purchase in the Wola district was preceded by the opening of Atrium 2 investment located on Pereca Street as well as the purchase of a land plot on Łucka Street. Skanska’s two biggest office projects – Generation Park near Daszyńskiego Roundabout and Spark on Towarowa Street – are currently under development. This means that Skanska projects developed or to be developed in the heart of Warsaw’s business district will exceed 350,000 sqm, twice the size of Warsaw’s Palace of Culture and Science.
“We have been building in Warsaw over the last 20 years. Projects by Skanska can be found throughout the city, including a significant part of Aleja Jana Pawła II Street. Furthermore, our new buildings will soon become an integral element of the newly-defined Towarowa Street area. The purchase of Ilmet is another step toward establishing a portfolio containing the best land plots in the city. We will thoroughly analyse opportunities for the appropriate management of the area. There are several possibilities none of which have been excluded. Most of all, we want this symbolic location of the city to include architecture that fits in with the surrounding area and fully meets the expectations of Warsaw’s residents,” commented Arkadiusz Rudzki, Managing Director at Skanska Property Poland.
Ilmet office building was developed in the late 1990s. In 2011, new concepts of new land management began to be adopted. As a result, the building’s owner wanted to replace it with an 188-meter high skyscraper designed by the Danish architectural studio, Schmidt Hammer Lassen. This project, along with the plot of land, has now been purchased by Skanska. According to Skanska, the plot’s potential is about 60,000 sqm. The Ilmet office building offers nearly 20,000 sqm of usable space.
