On August 13 of this year, Vastint Latvia has commissioned the first two office buildings of the first phase of construction of Business Garden Rīga, which includes more than 14,000 m2 of rental space, parking for 200 bicycles, and parking spots for 109 cars underground and 504 cars above ground. 20% of the premises are already pre-leased. The campus is being developed in three stages with a total of 70 000 m2 of modern office space and is one of the largest office campuses of this type in Latvia, offering its tenants the opportunity to plan for development and expansion within the campus.
At the heart of the Business Garden concept – which has already developed several large campuses in Poland and has sites under construction in Romania and Lithuania – is the focus on the individual. This entails creating a comfortable, high-quality environment for the wellbeing of employees, e.g. a green zone with areas for recreational and sports activities, and services that simplify the daily life of employees: restaurants, cafés, meeting rooms on the buildings’ ground floors, co-working rooms, a sports club, parcel delivery terminals and other service providers. It is particularly important for multinational companies that the campus be built following sustainability principles such as using energy efficient and environmentally friendly materials in the construction and finishing of buildings, which will ensure LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification.
“When creating the Business Garden campus, a great deal of focus was placed on factors that promote the wellbeing of everyone who uses the buildings – an expansive green zone with hundred-year-old trees, a basketball court for active relaxation, special bicycle parking spots and showers for bike commuters, services such as a restaurant, café, and the private child day-care facility Patnis, which will be opening in September. These are the easily visible components. Factors that are perhaps not so obvious, but which employees will appreciate nonetheless are things such as room layouts that maximize the amount of daylight received in all workspaces, windows that can be opened to let in fresh air, and the use of sustainable materials in both construction and finishing to ensure a healthy indoor climate. Companies that take care to make their employees happy receive in return a productive and competitive business”, says Līga Daniļeviča, Marketing Manager at Vastint Latvia. “One of the elements of employee wellbeing is a balanced work-life relationship in which the proximity of the workplace to one’s home plays a major role. Business Garden Rīga provides a valuable opportunity for businesses to take advantage of the talent residing on this side of the Daugava River – according to statistics, about half a million people live in the area: Pārdaugava has a population of 234,000, while the suburbs and cities of Mārupe, Jūrmala, Babīte, Ķekava, Baldone, Olaine, Ozolnieki, Engure, Jelgava and Tukums have a combined population of 247,815, a large part of whom commute to Riga.”
The location of the campus in the Pārdaugava district of Riga has various advantages – the campus is just a few minutes’ drive from the airport and has a well-developed surrounding infrastructure: shopping centres, schools, various sporting facilities, and entertainment venues. There are several universities and colleges nearby which are attended by about 30,000 students.
The business office project was designed by SIA “DEPO projekts”; construction work is being carried out by SIA “Skonto Būve”.