Central business district of Vilnius is growing: new office building will be developed
Active development of offices in Vilnius continues. A new office building will rise in Vilnius central business district at Konstitucijos Avenue, on the right bank of Neris, on the land between the National Art Gallery and the multifunctional Forum Palace building. SEB bank will be one of the main tenants of the office building. Newsec provided SEB bank with Tenant representation services and consulted for site selection and lease negotiations.
“The business heart of Vilnius – Konstitucijos Avenue – is now on a par with the major cities of Western Europe in terms of quality of new Class A offices being built there. The central business district is a hub for providers of financial, legal and other professional services, for whom well-developed infrastructure and a location that’s convenient for clients and partners are especially important. Modern offices in a convenient location also help companies attract talented employees. Consequently, the new tenants are placing very high demands on the office buildings’ developers and managers, who ensure that the buildings will be modern, efficient and environmentally friendly,” said Martynas Babilas, Partner and Head of Tenant Representation at Newsec Baltics.
M. Babilas notes that the long-term lease agreement has been signed more than two years prior to the move and reflects strong demand for high quality office space in Vilnius.
„Agreement signed so early shows rational decision-making by tenants – when planning well ahead it is possible to properly design the most beneficial occupancy scenario. Office space lease agreements are signed 18-24 months prior to the move more often, in such cases tenants have a possibility to choose suitable building and to have guarantees that all their expectations will be met,” said Martynas Babilas.
It will be a 12 700-square-metre class A office complex developed on 50 ares of territory. According to the investment management company Lords LB Asset Management that is developing the building, development of the project will take about 2 years.
“An agreement has been reached with one of the main tenants – SEB bank. This will be a particularly environmentally friendly office complex, certified ‘BREEAM Outstanding’ as meeting the highest standards of sustainability performance. The building will be commissioned by the middle of 2020,” said Marius Žemaitis, a Fund Manager at Lords LB Asset Management.
SEB bank’s administration head office and other functional units of the bank will move to the new office building, also the largest and most up-to-date customer service centre of SEB bank in Vilnius will be set up there. SEB Shared Service Centre operating in Vilnius will not move to the new office building. It is planned that in the summer of 2020 some 1 100 employees of SEB bank will move into about 10 000 square meters of space at the new centre.
“Currently the bank’s units in the city of Vilnius are located in five different buildings, and that’s not efficient. By moving to one office centre we’ll optimise operations by taking up less space and at the same time creating a significantly higher quality working environment for our employees as well as innovative customer-service area. We think the chosen location will be very convenient for both our clients and our employees,” said Aivaras Čičelis, a Vice President and Member of the Board at SEB bank.
He said that, with banking’s evolution, in moving to new premises the bank will also change its organisational processes, work environment and culture, to speed up and simplify processes and make collaboration among employees more effective. Scandinavian-style working environment will be created, offering different workspaces according to the various needs of our employees: work spaces for individual and team work cooperation, spaces to concentrate or to relax, also remote workplaces will be provided.