French group Renault extends the lease on the Northgate office building in Bucharest

Renault Technologie Roumanie, one of French group Renault’s local subsidiaries, has agreed to extend its lease for 20,600 sqm of office space in the Northgate office building in Bucharest for another four years. This is the latest of a series of large office leasing transactions in the Pipera area this year, which reflect the increasing demand for office space in the Nothern part of Bucharest. “Renault’s decision for extending the leasing contract represents a huge vote of confidence in Pipera and its future developments. We are now waiting for the local council to confirm their infrastructure plans for Pipera, which will complete the transformation of what will become Bucharest’s major business district,” said Marius Ivan, President of Creativ Invest Group, the developer and owner of the Northgate office building. Renault has been the main tenant of the Northgate office building since it was inaugurated, in 2007. First it had half of the building, some 9,900 sqm and three years ago it took over the space initially leased to other tenants. Currently, Renault is the only tenant of the building, occupying all of its 20,600 sqm. Northgate Office Building was developed by Creativ Global Property, a company co-owned by Romanian businessman Marius Ivan and Irish Tom Quinn, and was one of the first modern office buildings in the area. The area around the Barbu Vacarescu and Pipera boulevards is one of the hottest sport for offices in Bucharest right now, with several large projects underway. Renault Technologie Roumanie is Renault’s largest engineering center outside France. The company has more than 2,000 employees in Romania, most of them in Bucharest. Most of them are engineers who work on designing and improving vehicles, as well as adapting engines and gearboxes, for the entry range models, such as Dacia. The company has operations in Bucharest and a technical center in Titu. Renault also owns the Dacia car factory in Mioveni, near Pitesti, which has some 14,000 employees. Andrei Chirileasa, andrei@romania-insider.com