In the new West Gate office building owned by Echo Investment, which is currently under construction, near the intersection of the city centre ring-road with Lotnicza, Milenijna and Legnicka streets, Nokia Networks will have its offices and one of its most modern research & development laboratories in the world. The investment means 1,200 new jobs. The new building will be opened on the 30th of April 2015.
‘Nokia Networks has signed an agreement for the lease of almost 14,000 sq. m. with us and will be the main tenant in the facility (80% of space). We are happy that Nokia has put its trust in us,’ stresses Katarzyna Kubicka, Senior Leasing Manager in Echo Investment SA and adds that, apart from Nokia Networks, the building will also contain offices of Deichmann Obuwie Sp. z o.o., the medical centre Enel-Med and K&D Foods.
Nokia Networks is a global specialist in mobile broadband transmission. This will be the fourth location of the Nokia Networks European Software and Engineering Centre in Wroclaw and the third laboratory in which new communications technologies will be analysed and tested. The laboratory will be equipped with state-of-the-art devices, including test simulators, base station prototypes, signal oscilloscopes or the latest generation of radio spectrum analysers.
‘Our centre is one of the main technological pillars of Nokia Networks in the world. We need a new location because of the continuous development and recruitment of personnel. This year we have employed around 750 persons in Wroclaw and we are still looking for new personnel. One of the reasons for the choice of West Gate was the excellent location of the building near our other offices,’ says Bartosz Ciepluch, Director of the Nokia Networks European Software and Engineering Centre in Wroclaw.
The construction of the West Gate office building has been carried out for 18 months. At present, finish works are under way. Katarzyna Kubicka says that the investment arouses much interest among local inhabitants – observing the construction of successive floors, they called and asked what and when would be built there.
The new investment will be located close to large housing estates, which – according to Deputy Mayor of Wroclaw Adam Grehl – may be of importance to potential employees.
‘This will mean only benefits for the city: a facility that will enrich the architecture of this area, new jobs for graduates of Wroclaw universities and other schools of higher education, and additional income from property tax in the budget,’ says Adam Grehl, Deputy Mayor of Wroclaw, pointing out that almost 600,000 sq. m. of commercial spaces have been made available in new office buildings for the last 10 years.
