Coffee Retailer Looking to Relocate Headquarters

WARSAW-The Poland subsidiary of major German coffee retailer Tchibo is on the hunt for a new headquarters location within the city. Tchibo Warszawa is employing Colliers International brokers here to locate it about 20,000 sf for a move scheduled to occur in about five months. Tchibo Warszawa’s current head office is located in about 16,000 sf at 146b Jerozolimskie Avenue in the Jerozolimskie Business Park in Warsaw’s Ochota District. The building is owned by Mahler Project, a German developer. The company has been at the location for seven years.A source at Colliers in Warsaw tells GlobeSt.com the company is looking for class A space on the Western fringes of Warsaw’s CBD, which would include West Ochota, North Œródmieœcie and the northwestern fringe of Wola. Colliers associate director Robert Karniewski says Tchibo Warszawa will likely move in August this year, which is when their current lease expires. “We believe that current rental prices and an ever falling vacancy rate among Warsaw’s Class A buildings are motivating factors for tenants to review their leasing contracts this year,” he says. According to the latest Colliers Office Market Overview the overall vacancy in Warsaw is declining slowly. Overall vacancy fell to just over 12%, an improvement of 244 basis points year on year, and maintaining the trend of continuous quarterly decreases. If trends continue, the overall vacancy rate should drop by approximately 200-300 basis points by the end of 2005, according to the report, with the most significant decreases visible outside the CBD as tenants previously within the CBD move into larger spaces in the outlying areas. Before vacancy dips into the single digits and rents begin to rise again, one local source tells GlobeSt.com that companies like Tchibo Warszawa stand to save as much as 50% compared to their current rental rate. Tenants that signed on several years ago are now paying about US$23.67 per sm per month on average for class A space like Tchibo Warszawa currently occupies while current rental rates are averaging US$15.78 per sm per month, according to the source.