Lviv, a western Ukrainian city with more than 700,000 residents, is also the home of dozens of technology companies. Property developers use that to their advantage.
Recently Adamas, a Lviv-based property developer, announced that in the beginning of 2016 it will start building a large office building for 500 employees of information technology companies. The development will have modern facilities, including parking space and infrastructure comfortable for their type of work. Construction is expected to finish in mid-2017.
Last August Adamas bought a Soviet-era building for Hr 4 million in order to re-construct and upgrade it. After some parts of the building fell apart in April, the company decided to demolish it and build a new one.
With that purpose in mind, Adamas starting taking bids from architectural firms to offer their design models. On July 24, a nine-member jury announced the winner: Kyiv-based Kudin architectural firm. Adamas didn’t disclose the value of the contract. The third and second prize winners received Hr 25,000 and Hr 50,000, respectively.
According to Adamas CEO Andriy Havryliv, the two main criteria used in the selection process was the functionality of the building and the innovative architecture.
“When we bought the building, we did a lot of research before we found out that in Lviv there is a big demand from IT companies for spacious, modern multi-functional offices,” Havryliv said.
None of the IT companies in Lviv contributed financially to the project, although the need for the office spaces is present, said Roman Dzygovsky, spokesman for Nravo, a Lviv-based game developer. “There is an acute lack of high-quality spacious offices in Lviv,” he said.
Software development company SoftServe might be the only company that has an office that can hold hundreds of employees in Lviv. “Lately we also have many businesses moving to Lviv from the east and south, so the problem gets bigger with the lack of modern space,” Dzygovsky said.
Kyiv Post staff writer BozhenaSheremeta can be reached at [email protected]. The Kyiv Post’s IT coverage is sponsored by AVentures Capital, Ciklum, FISON and SoftServe.
