Developer of the Year – TriGranit: A Brief Pause or Tactical Retreat?

The global economic downturn may be crushing one project after another but it fortunately cannot bring all life to a standstill. Some news may actually sound like a false alarm, but this is all there is to it. However, honors were handed out, late last year, at the second annual CiJ Awards Slovakia, an event organized by CEE Construction & Investment Journal – one of Central and Eastern Europe's most prestigious real estate periodicals. Amidst great gnashing of the alert competition teeth, the award went to TriGranit. „[TriGranit] was the first foreign developer to enter the Slovak market; they have executed splendid projects and become a renowned and recognized developer corporation,“ noted Radomír Němeček, General Director of TriGranit Development Slovakia.

Are they immodest or just plainly proud? Fact is that TriGranit officially billboards itself as the third largest development corporation in Europe. They are in a premium position to expand on the real estate market. The total amount of their investments in Slovakia to date is 222 million euros and they have created almost six thousand jobs. They entered the Slovak market in 1997 with their project of a Bratislava shopping and amusement emporium, the Polus City Center, which was the first of its kind while it was also the first foreign investment in the field of development in Slovakia. TriGranit has since then grown to become one of the best-recognized European developer companies. At present they are working on 11 projects in Central and East European countries, where they plan to invest more than 8.5 billion euros (including a multibillion Russian package).

Multi Functionality and Top Standards

Not far from the Polus City Center, TriGranit has supplied other successful project – Millennium Tower I and II. „Multipurpose is the key concept of our company that we pursue in Slovakia and the other Central and East European countries where TriGranit is active; this involves a major and most spacious shopping emporium in the center of gravity, surrounded by other functional and specialized facilities. It was movie theatres in Bratislava's Polus, a skating rink in Budapest, and in Katowice, where we built a shopping mall in place of an abandoned coalmine, we have revamped an old machine room,“ TriGranit Development Corporation's Ivana Ševčíková told Stavebné fórum.sk.

In addition to the multipurpose projects, TriGranit supplies chiefly office space and insists on delivering top-quality equipment. Ševčíková said high quality was what set the company apart from the other market suppliers of office buildings: their projects, including garages, utilize advanced systems with built-in ventilation, air-conditioning, humidifier, heating and air supply equipment, sprinklers and safety features. Offices are customized to meet individual client specifications.

Lakeside Park 01 – Slovakia's most advanced office project

In June 2008, TriGranit inaugurated the first part of its prestigious Lakeside Park 01 office compound project in Bratislava's Nové Město area – a „Class A“ office building with almost 25,000 square metres of office floors built to the highest standards available on the Slovak market. The 22-floor office tower offers seven high-speed elevators, a spacious restaurant and café, around-the-clock security services, and a state-of-the-art building management system. Lakeside Park – Phase 01 is probably Slovakia's most sophisticated high-rise office building in terms technical amenities and comfort.

Last year, Lakeside Park's investor TriGranit and its real estate consultant CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) announced a contract on the lease of 2,500 square meters of office space in Bratislava. Kone SSC Slovensko, Ltd. (subsidiary of a Finnish multinational corporation, which is one of the world's leading suppliers of elevators, escalators, automatic building doors and complete building solutions) moved to the new premises in November 2008. According to general director Peter Andrišin, the decision in favor of the Lakeside Park was based on its „superb quality, pleasant location near Lake Kuchajda, as well as professional attitudes on the part of TriGranit“. Interestingly, Kone actually had not supplied elevators to the business center. The list of prominent tenants of Lakeside Park 01 includes also Nike and Danisco, while Millennium Towers I and II have previously been selected as the headquarters of the likes of ČSOB Poisťovňa Insurance Company, IBM, T-Mobile or Samsung.

Further Lakeside Park stages

The Lakeside Park – Phase 01 project, executed by Adamson Associates Architects and general contractor Skanska, is but the first part of a vast office center. But the €45 million building provides its users with a comfortable, stimulating working environment and innovative architecture in the vicinity of Lake Kuchajda. Scheduled for completion by 2013, the vast Lakeside Park complex would provide about 90,000 square meters of area for hire and 2,500 parking places surrounded by a new park.

However, not even this project has managed to avoid rumors about its reported suspension. Is it true, then, and if so, why? „We are working to secure a change of territorial plan concerning the further phases of the Lakeside Park project and have no information yet, at this stage,“ Ivona Ševčíková explained. Since some key players in the field of Slovak real estate development business often cite territorial plans and procedures, it will be interesting to see if TriGranit has just taken time out or if it is actually a lengthier tactical pause necessitated by the global financial crisis.

Photos: TriGranit Development Corporation

1 – Polus City Center 2 – Millennium Towers I & II 3 – Lakeside Park 01 – a look from outside 4 – Lakeside Park 02 – a look from the inside

Súvisiace články

Sociálne siete

Voľby článku

Uložit jako PDF | Filtrovať články autora | Tlačiť