The building’s owner WING, and the web shop Alza.hu, have signed a leasing agreement for the long-term rental of almost 5000 m2 in Skylight CITY following its redevelopment from a shopping centre into a high-quality, cost-effective office building. With this, a quarter of the building is now rented. Norbert Schőmer, WING’s deputy CEO with responsibility for office developments, said that a major factor in Alza.hu’s decision was the building’s landmark location, and the fact that the conversion of the space is being carried out in accordance with the tenant’s needs in order to create an innovative, livable and inspiring working environment.

The construction work is currently under way in the seven-story, 20,000 m2 Skylight CITY office building, located on the Róbert Károly körút ring road near to Váci út. The former Material Center building, which previously functioned as a retail property, is being transformed into a high-quality yet cost-effective office building by Hungary’s leading property developer, WING. Skylight CITY is easily accessible either by car or by public transport, and has excellent visibility. An advantage of the building is that it can serve as a company headquarters, but also provides opportunities for subdividing the floors into several offices.

The incoming tenant, the Alza.hu webshop, will open its second Hungarian showroom, which will also be its new flagship, on the ground floor. The warehouse serving Hungarian deliveries will be housed on the subterranean level. WING is fitting out the offices to suit Alza.hu’s needs in a turnkey project, with handover to take place in several phases by spring 2018.

“Skylight CITY is WING’s latest office development. The fact that Alza.hu chose this building as the location for its new showroom and warehouse clearly shows that the redevelopment and full refurbishment of the building is proving successful. It’s clearly an attractive proposition for a company if its prospective headquarters building is customised with its particular needs in mind, especially when all this comes at a reasonable cost. As market leader, we continue to focus on developing products that are tailored to suit the tenant. For Alza.hu, we are creating an accessible, city-based commercial headquarters and a liveable, inspiring working environment, all at competitive terms,” said WING’s Deputy CEO responsible for office developments, Norbert Schőmer. He added that “the Czech-owned web shop is a remarkable trading company with an exceptionally forward-looking business model that builds exclusively on online orders, in order to fit in with today’s commercial needs. Our company’s aim is to provide space in the building for tenants engaged in similarly innovative activity.

“Our new commercial space at Skylight enables us to serve our customers in a next-generation store to-be introduced in Hungary, where customers can benefit the advantages of online shopping and store service at the same time. I am convinced that more and more customers will be attracted by alza’s new store and that is the key component to our successful Hungarian expansion,” said Tomáš Havryluk, Vice-chairman of the board Alza.

About the Skylight CITY office building  

The location of Skylight CITY on the Róbert Károly körút ring road is made ideal by its proximity to the Váci út business district, coupled with easy access both by car and by public transport. The corner building has excellent visibility, with a glass curtain wall and granite facade, as well as a characterful, spacious interior atrium. An advantage of the building is that it can serve as a company headquarters, but also provides opportunities for subdividing the floors into several offices. The minimum space of available rental units is 600 m2. The layout of the offices can be configured with a high degree of flexibility on every storey, without compromising cost-effective operation. Another key attraction of the building, given today’s rising prices in the office market, is that Skylight CITY offers its modern services at reasonable rental rates.

The building, which aims to comply with the BREEAM In-Use rating system, seeks to maximise the comfort and convenience of workers with human-friendly services such as bicycle storage facilities in the underground car park, WiFi in common areas, and a floor devoted to fitness facilities. The architectural designs of Skylight CITY conversion were made by Wing’s architectural studio Aspectus Architect, while the interior design is the work of Lab5.