WING is launching its latest office development project, HOP Passage, in Hungária Office Park (HOP) in Hungária körút. The new building will be next to Gizella LOFT, the office building completed in late 2020 and now rented out to international tenants. This is a brand new development project in Hungária Office Park, a new 5-storey office building with 13,600 sq m of leasable office space and 376 parking spaces in a 3-level underground parking garage, which will meet the criteria of the BREEAM Excellence and Acces4you certification systems. The construction phase is scheduled to start in early 2022, and the development is expected to be completed by the end of 2023.

Its excellent urban location is a major benefit of Hungária Office Park. Located in a major junction along a key ring road of Budapest, Hungária körút, the new buildings in the calm, green environment within the walls of the property are only a 10-minute ride from the city centre and are easily accessible from virtually anywhere in the city by car, by tram no. 1 – its route passes in front of the office park – and by several buses and trolley buses. Additionally, there is a bicycle path leading to the office park, and the Zugló railway station is just an arm’s reach away, on the opposite side of the ring road.

The new development is located at a former Siemens site, a 3 ha lot that has been operating under the name Hungária Office Park since the summer of 2021. Siemens acquired the lot that used to be a phone factory in 1990, and it became the company’s Hungarian headquarters. WING purchased the property in 2018 and started the preparation of the development plans. As the first phase, Gizella LOFT, the tallest building on the site, was renovated and completed on time, tailored to the needs of the tenants, including TÜV Rheinland. The next phase of the Hungária Office Park project is the HOP Passage office building, a new office development on a vacant lot in Gizella utca, a lovely street in the Zugló area. After that, 3 new buildings will be added to the office park and the existing industrial heritage buildings will be reinvented and refurbished in 4 additional phases. Currently there are leasable buildings with an area of nearly 40,000 sq m on the lot, and after the construction of new buildings and the environmentally friendly refurbishment of the existing ones, the office park will have a total of 65,000 sq m of leasable office space and approximately 1,000 parking spaces.

The new HOP Passage office building will offer vast, light-filled spaces that are easy to furnish, a wide range of services and flexible lease terms. Leading from Gizella utca to the calm, green park inside the complex, a two-storey high passage will give the building a unique look—and its name. The inner side of the building will have an all-glass façade facing the garden, and the façade from the street will have ribbon windows with shades on the inside, so the interior can get plenty of natural light in a controlled manner. The new complex will have 2 receptions on the ground floor, which will allow for an arrangement with several tenants, potentially with an exclusive entrance for companies that need it. The building will have 5 levels of office space and 3 additional levels for parking. 2 lift cores will have a total of 6 passenger lifts, fire-fighting lifts and lifts with access to the parking levels. The underground parking garage will have 20 electric vehicle charging stations and changing rooms with showers for those riding a bike to work. The present ground-level parking places will be moved to a new underground parking garage, and the current parking lot will be converted into a community space with greenery and a pond.

“We decided to launch this large-scale, multi-phase project, the development of Hungária Office Park, as part of WING’s long term development strategy, which aims to create a more liveable urban environment. The concept reinvention and full renovation of this property, once a telephone factory then owned and used partly as an industrial site by Siemens in the 1990s, follows WING’s corporate philosophy, as it repurposes an urban brownfield area with significant history to meet current property market expectations and fills it with new ideas, functions and life. In the coming years, a new, eco-friendly complex with a total area of nearly 65,000 sq m will be created on a major property with development potential in Hungária körút: existing buildings will be redeveloped and renovated and new buildings will be constructed, the first phase being the completion of the HOP Passage office building,” said Noah Steinberg, Chairman and CEO of WING.

This is an urban neighbourhood with a great atmosphere where you can find several grocery stores, banks, ATMs, pharmacies, bakeries and restaurants nearby, and Hungária Office Park already offers a wide range of services to its tenants. In July 2021, a new bistro restaurant with an area of 500+ sq m opened in the central building of the property, on the Hungária körút side, with a separate café and a terrace facing a garden. In the spring of 2021, the 1,000 sq m Synergym fitness centre opened, an Alteo electric vehicle charging station for multiple cars was installed, and the Share Now car sharing service was introduced. An interior garden with a fountain and several rooftop gardens offer office workers an opportunity to recharge their mind and body, and City Park, currently undergoing renewal, is also in close proximity.

“We believe in urban locations and in the new Budapest office corridor emerging in Hungária körút, which can provide a competitive alternative to Váci út, which is almost full now. It was on the same ring road where we completed the Allianz headquarters in 2008, the Telekom headquarters and Skylight City, the renovated office building formerly known as Material Center, in 2018, and the Gizella LOFT complex at the end of 2020 – all projects were completed on time and were fully tailored to the needs of the future tenants.  Telekom’s HQ, a WING development, is located at the Üllői út/Hungária körút junction, and right next to it Liberty Offices are currently under construction. Hungária Office Park is also in a special area, not only because of its proximity to Hungária körút and Thököly út, which boast outstanding transportation infrastructure, but also its location in the people-oriented, atmospheric Zugló district, making it a particularly appealing site”, said Norbert Schőmer, WING’s deputy CEO responsible for office development.