BCR relocates head office to building developed by Vastint in western Bucharest

BCR, the second-biggest lender in Romania, part of Austrian Erste Group, will relocate its 1,000 employees currently working in the head office in downtown Bucharest (Bucharest Financial Plaza) to a new office complex developed in western Bucharest, in the Orhideea office agglomeration, by Swedish developer Vastint, Profit.ro reported.

The bank wants to sell the Bucharest Financial Plaza building, one of the first modern office buildings in Bucharest, which served as the headquarters of the former state-owned bank Bancorex, which went bankrupt at the end of the 1990s and was taken over by BCR.

“BCR continues the process of consolidating central operations, which began in 2018 with the relocation of several departments, which were previously in 15 different buildings, to The Bridge office project in the Orhideea area,” BCR officials said.

The relocation from Bucharest Financial Plaza will be initiated next year. BCR will occupy approximately 15,000 square meters, the equivalent of three floors of a building, according to sources in the real estate market.

Under the latest information quoted by Profit.ro, BCR will rent even a larger area -- namely six floors. The annual value of the rental agreement signed by BCR could exceed EUR 2.5 million, taking into account the average rents of the area, Profit.ro estimated.

Vastint’s Business Garden Bucharest project (pictured) in the Orhideea area includes three office buildings with a total leasable area of 41,000 sqm.

(Photo courtesy of Colliers)