Novo Park & West Gate offices in Bucharest gain green certification following multimillion-euro investments

The West Gate and Novo Park office developments in Bucharest, both owned by Liviu Tudor, have been awarded the BREEAM green office certification, receiving the rating “Very Good” under the scheme. Tudor said the value of investment for the two office parks was between EUR 15 million – EUR 20 million, while the investment required for the green certification valued between EUR 1.5 and EUR 3 million for each development. West Gate, next to the Preciziei metro station, comprises five office buildings with 75,000 sqm of gross leasable area (GLA). Four of the five buildings, with 60,000 sqm GLA, have received green certification, while the fifth building should be evaluated after the first year of operation. Meanwhile, Novo Park, near the Pipera metro station, includes seven office buildings with a GLA of over 75,000 sqm. The first three buildings, some 40,000 square meters, have already been BREEAM certified and before the end of 2013 the remaining three buildings of the office park should also have obtained green building certificates. Both developments are near 100 percent occupancy, according to owner Liviu Tudor. He said the decision to pursue green certification was born of concern for the environment and for keeping tenants costs down. The energy efficiency measures needed for green certification reduce the maintenance costs for tenants by 5 – 6 percent. The certification of the two office developments doubles the amount of green office space in Bucharest, according to Liviu Tudor. Among the companies based in West Gate and Novo Park are: Hewlett-Packard, Procter & Gamble, Siemens, Ericsson, Mondelez Romania (formerly known as Kraft Foods), Ringier, Infineon, Yokagawa, ITC Networks / Luxoft, Sodexo, UniCredit Business Integrated Solutions, WNS, Panasonic, Automobile Dacia, Citibank, Alpha Bank, Société Générale, Garanti Bank and Carestream Health. The BREEAM certification scheme (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) began in the UK in 1990. BREEAM In-Use is a certification scheme for the sustainability of existing buildings and analyzes such elements as: daily management of the building, transportation, building materials, interior comfort, water, waste, energy, pollution and ecology. editor@romania-insider.com