The European Trade Centre (ETC) has confirmed that the first tenants, poised to move in in January 2010, are Carrefour and Vivacom, Dnevnik daily said.

The first two buildings of the ETC business park, now under construction on Tsarigradsko Chaussee, will be completed in December 2009. Vivacom has signed on for a 23 000 sq m office, whereas Carrefour will take 6 700 sq m. According to the statement, the contract between ETC and Vivacom is the largest ever office rent deal on the Bulgarian market.

The ETC management expects for all other retail area to be fully rented out by the end of March 2010.

ETC chief executive Tanya Kosseva-Boshova believes that the demand for office space will increase significantly in the second half of 2010, as the economic recession forces companies to optimise their resources and office space.

"A lot of firms realised they were operating from obsolete offices, whose space was badly planned and not energy efficient. They understood they were paying more than they were getting in return, which will gradually shift the trend and the demand for new modern office space will increase," she said.

"The first optimistic signs emanating from the United States and Western Europe that the worst in the economic crisis is over will further boost and intensify the process, as most of the clients are multinational companies who are willing to optimise their resourses," she said.

The European Trade Centre has five class A office buildings with a total area of 70 000 sq m. The exclusive consultant of the project is Colliers International, while the project itself cost about 70 million euro.

Source: propertywisebulgaria.