BBI Development secured Google Poland as an office tenant for its Koneser project, going up along the left bank of the Vistula river in Warsaw. No further details on the lease agreement were disclosed. However, when news broke last year that Google was looking to launch its third startup incubator, following launches in London and Tel Aviv, the US tech giant had reportedly been in the process of opening a 1,800 sqm office on the Warsaw market.
āItās one of the activities to be implemented under our innovation and enterprise support program aimed at both Poland and the entire CEE region,ā said Piotr Zalewski of Google Polska. Last year, the company said that thanks to its activities in KrakĆ³w, it had been encouraged enough by the dynamism of Polish startups to invest further in the country. Its next campaign, New Europe Challengers, aims to identify new innovation leaders in the region.
Along with 25,500 sqm of offices, Koneser will provide 21,000 sqm of retail space and 300 residential units, as well as a hotel, a conference center and the worldās first Museum of Vodka. The investment, design by Juvenes, is an in-depth renovation of factory facilities.
The project is a JV between the Warsaw Stock Exchange developer BBI and Liebrecht & wooD which acquired a 50-percent stake in Koneser two years ago. The mixed-use scheme is going up on a 5 ha plot, located between ZÄ bkowska, NieporÄcka, BiaÅostocka and Markowska streets in Warsawās Praga district. BBI is overseeing the housing components independently.
