“One aspect that concerns us is the time employees spend commuting to the office. From our perspective, 2 hours spent each day commuting to the office decreases employee productivity. Those 2 hours mean a lot in employees’ lives. The location of the offices is very important in retaining, motivating and attracting employees.

We have to be very careful about the location of the offices, the facilities we offer. We have two projects: Timpuri Noi Square and Business Garden Bucharest. Both were chosen from the perspective of the employee and the employer. At Timpuri Noi Square we have 53,000 square meters fully leased,” Antoniu Panait, Managing Director, Vastint Romania said at Workplace of the Future conference organized by The Diplomat-Bucharest.

Key statements:

• We have a waiting list of tenants for the spaces at Timpuri Noi Square. Phase two is under construction and we will have 65,000 square meters rentable. This project is successful because it is close to the major residential areas of Bucharest and thus, we solve a big problem for employers, for HR departments, who are faced with a very high employee turnover.
• In this development phase we have eliminated gas-fired power plants, so we have buildings that no longer consume fossil fuels.
• We are developing office buildings that must remain relevant for decades. Office buildings evolve very quickly, and the attractiveness that we have to create is very important. Technology plays an important role in this regard, because we can help employers find the best location for their office with special tools using data. We are constantly trying to adapt to the needs of tenants.
• AI technology is somewhat recent, we cannot yet use AI for decision-making, not even for filtering information. We collect data through building management system (BMS) and these are interpreted by specialists, engineers who propose different solutions for resource efficiency. We must be cautious in implementing new technologies until we are sure that those technologies are good.
• I estimate that artificial intelligence will help us in the future to collect data very quickly and give us a list of solutions that can be applied for efficiency. It is very important to reduce energy and resource consumption in the near future.