Two landmark projects built by OCTAGON, made public debut in 2014

With lots of projects under development and new investments on the pipeline, 2014 was certainly a dynamic year for the office segment. And developers rolled the dice in favor of OCTAGON. The company made the best of the market opportunities and managed last year to deliver two major office buildings, both of them located in Bucharest: Green Court Bucharest – building B and Hermes Business Campus- building B.

How did we do it? It was not easy, but we somehow managed to master extremely tough site conditions, we put in a lot of hard work and used the latest technologies in building processes. Below are highlights from each project.

As green as it gets

What did the real estate giant Skanksa envision when they decided to develop the office complex Green Court Bucharest? Large open office spaces, easy to reach from any area of Bucharest, with lots of green elements, in order to create a healthy comfortable working environment.

Green Court Bucharest - building A

How did this concept translate into design? The project includes three office buildings stretching over 52,000 sqm, built in Bucharest’s office hub, at the crossroads of Barbu Văcărescu Blvd and Pipera Road, within five minutes walk from Aurel Vlaicu metro station. Skanska also thought of making the project as green as possible and thus implemented  “green” solutions, such as glass façade with low heat transfer, natural lighting in over  85% of the working areas, power stations for electric cars charging, bicycle parking areas and facilities such as showers and locker rooms.

OCTAGON was hired to build the infrastructure and superstructure of building A and the superstructure of building B and successfully delivered both projects in 2013 and 2104.

Building A has a GLA of 19,500 sqm, 12 floors and is 91% leased by clients such as Schneider Electric România, Orange România, LS TRAVEL RETAIL Romania. The building was acquired by real estate investor Globalworth Real Estate Investments Ltd for 44 million euro.

Building B has a total GLA of 18.000 mp, 12 floors and 3 underground parking levels, with 315 available parking spaces. The second phase of the project also features sustainable solutions to minimize the impact of the building on the environment and to significantly reduce operational costs.

Modern technologies such as energy efficient double façade, efficient lighting systems, equipped with movement and intensity sensors, were used.

Beating the odds

In 2010 Belgian developer Atenor Group decided to build their first project in Romania, right across Pipera metro station. Building a 78,000 sqm office complex in a moment when the market was on a downward path seamed, at the time, extremely ambitious. Four years later, the first of the three buildings was delivered by OCTAGON and the company is now working on building the second one.

It sure was and still is a challenging project, but so far, it has beaten the odds. Hermes Business Campus started in a moment when the entire real estate market was on a downward path and few companies were thinking of relocating or leasing spaces in large scale office schemes.

Hermes Business Campus- building B

While building the first office unit of the complex, Austrian general contract, Alpine Bau, went bankrupt and OCTAGON, which was Alpine’s subcontractor, took over the project and continued the works.

Building B covers 37,000 sqm, has eight floors above the ground plus technical floor and is fully leased.  The Embassy of Netherlands, Xerox, SNC Lavalin and Synevo IT are among the tenants of the building.

On the western façade photo voltaic cells were installed, thus ensuring 7% of the entire energy consumption for one year.

OCTAGON used 31,000 cm of concrete and 3,600 t of metal fittings for the construction of building B. Three hundred people worked on the construction site and the project was delivered in June 2014.

The office building is currently being BREEAM certified with Excellent rating on-design and post-construction, which represents the best certification a building can obtain in terms of sustainable and green features.

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Video: OCTAGON built the foundation in top- down system for Sky Tower- the tallest building in Romania

Reaching 137 m in height and counting 5 underground levels and 37 ground levels, Sky Tower is the tallest building in Romania. The building, located on Calea Floreasca is visible from any area of Bucharest. OCTAGON CONTRACTING & ENGINEERING built the foundation of Sky Tower and performed thus the deepest excavation in Romania, so far: 50 m. The infrastructure works also included the execution of diaphragm walls D 1,000, foundation barrettes D 600 and dewatering systems. OCTAGON performed the construction in top- down system of three reinforced concrete slabs, covering 4,600 sqm each. The video renders the entire execution process of the foundation works.

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OCTAGON awarded Quality Trophy ARACO 2014, for the project Hermes Business Campus

OCTAGON CONTRACTING & ENGINEERING was awarded the prize Quality Trophy ARACO 2014, for building B within the office complex Hermes Business Campus. Another nine reference projects performed by the companies Hidroconstructia, Bog’Art, Iamsat Muntenia, ACI Cluj, Iridex Group, IMSAT, Dedal Bahamat and the consortium Recon- Romelectro- Mitliv were awarded the same prize during a ceremony which was held Thursday, November 27th at Madgearu Hall within the exhibition center Romexpo, in Bucharest. This has been the 19th edition of ARACO Quality Trophy. The event is organized every year.

Quality Trophy ARACO 2014

OCTAGON was general contractor for building B within the office complex Hermes Business Campus, located on 5-7 Dimitrie Pompeiu Blvd. in Bucharest. The company delivered the works in June 2014. The complex which has been BREEAM certified with excellent grade for structure is the first investment of the Belgian group Atenor in Romania and will be built in several stages and will eventually cover 78,000 sqm.

Building B, the first one built within the complex, has a total area of 37,000 sqm and 4 basements + ground floor + eight floors+ technical floor.

The works began at the end of 2010, when OCTAGON won the infrastructure contract for the four underground levels. The geotechnical works performed by the company were the following:
• Diaphragm walls D 800 mm, h = 24,75 m; area = 7.600 sqm;
• Crown beam 0.65 m X 1,00 m- 297 m;
• Foundation piles D 1,500 mm and D 1,000 mm, h = 25,85 m;
• Test pilot;
• Manufacturing and installation of metal profiles for slab support;
• Manufacturing and installation of metal column heads for the support of slabs for the 3rd and 4th underground levels;
• Design and execution of dewatering system;
• General excavation to quota 13.72 (60,000 cubic meters).
• Construction in top- down system of two reinforced concrete slabs, covering 3,950 sqm each, for the underground levels 3 and 4;
• Construction of foundation raft 1.4 m, height – 6.261 cubic meters.

Hermes Business Campus- building B

The geotechnical works were delivered in October 2011.

In 2012 OCTAGON was contracted by Alpine Bau- the general contractor of the building back then, to perform the concrete reinforcement works for the superstructure.

In 2013 OCTAGON took over the general construction contract from the Austrian company and added a new work package to the contracted works, consisting in the execution of:
• Superstructure: ground floor, levels 1-8 and technical floor;
• Architecture works: walls, ceilings, floors, interior finishes, masonry and facade.
• Electrical installations;
• Sanitary installations;
• HVAC.

The company is currently performing the superstructure works on the second building- C, after delivering the special foundation works on the same building.

Hermes Business Campus- building C

Interview BURSA CONSTRUCTIILOR- Alexandros Ignatiadis: Our anchor during the crisis was the Iraqi market

Alexandros Ignatiadis

Octagon will end 2014 with a 16 million euro turnover, a decline on the turnover reported last year, according to the estimates of Alexandros Ignatiadis, co- founder and shareholder of the company. The anchor of Octagon during the crisis was the Iraqi market, he told us during an interview, stressing that the company wants to consolidate its position in this country, where it already has two ongoing projects. Alexandros Ignatiadis believes that the Romanian construction market needs restructuring, as it operates on 900 million euro annual losses and as in the past 20 years it has been negatively affected by political instability. Mr. Ignatiadis told us that the beginning of the year was characterized by effervescence in the private real estate sector, but, after the end of the first semester, many projects have slowed down.

Hermes Business Campus- building B

Reporter: How did the company’s activity evolve in the first year half and what is your forecast for the second half of the year?

Alexandros Ignatiadis: The first half of the year evolved positively for Octagon. We finished the construction of the first building within the office complex Hermes Business Campus, where we were general contractor and we contracted new civil, geotechnical and infrastructure works. The turnover for H1 of 2014- 6.6 million euro, is similar to the one of H 1 2013, so the financial perspectives for 2014 are optimistic.

Green Court Bucharest- building B 1

Reporter: Will 2014 be a better year than 2013 for Octagon?

Alexandros Ignatiadis: Even if it included number 13- that allegedly brings bad luck, 2013 was one of the best years OCTAGON has had so far. Two of our remarkable successes were the fact that we became general contractor for Hermes Business Campus and also having delivered the first building of the complex Green Court Bucharest, developed by Swedish real estate giant Skanska. We ended the year with a 19.6 million euro turnover, and we estimate a 16 million euro turnover for 2014.

Reporter: How do you see the short and medium term evolution of the construction market?

Green Court Bucharest- building B 2

Alexandros Ignatiadis: The construction market needs restructuring, because something is fundamentally wrong in this industry. A 4 billion euro market is operating on 900 million euro annual losses. It is an overcrowded market, which has been negatively influenced by political instability in the past 20 years. The short and medium term evolution will only be positive if this regulation occurs and if the state grants fiscal incentives for the sector consolidation. There is also a law draft initiated by the Romanian Association of Construction Entrepreneurs (ARACO), to eliminate from the competition, the companies set up overnight, that have access to public projects worth hundreds of millions of euro. Another solution would be to merge several Romanian companies in order to create companies with a superior financial power, able to access tenders for very high value projects. The construction sector is still a brake for economic growth, due to the fact that the political stabilization process has not ended yet

Reporter: How have the orders generated by public and private investments, evolved this year?

Alexandros Ignatiadis: Due to the fact that 2014 is an electoral year, most of the public funds have been directed towards areas able to attract voters. The construction sector is not a priority for the state this year, but we have been slightly affected, as we are not involved in major public projects. The private sector is dynamic this year. We participate in tenders for projects within all the segments of the construction market.

PC Business Center- superstructure 1

Reporter: Consultants say that the new real estate developments market, including the residential sector, has started to perform better this year. What is your perspective?

Alexandros Ignatiadis: The year started dynamically in the private sector and this gave new hopes, but after the first semester many announced projects have slowed down.   

Reporter: What will be the engine of the construction market in the next period?

Alexandros Ignatiadis: Inevitably, after 4 years of stagnation, infrastructure will be the engine of the construction market.

Reporter: What are the short and medium term development plans of Octagon?

Alexandros Ignatiadis: In a stagnating market, our priority is the consolidation of the economic position and keeping the existing clients. 

PC Business Center- superstructure 2

Reporter: How would you evaluate the tax level in our country?

Alexandros Ignatiadis: The tax level is acceptable against other EU member states, but the number of taxes must be reduced and wage inflexibility must also relax.

Reporter: What are your most important ongoing projects?

Alexandros Ignatiadis: We have ongoing projects in Romania and in Iraq. In Romania we are working on two office buildings and five infrastructure projects. We are working on building B of the Green Court Bucharest office complex, located on Herastrau St.- Bucharest, after having delivered building A, at the beginning of the year. The complex will have three office buildings in total.

A project started last autumn, on which we are currently working, is the office building PC Business Center, located on 7-9 A Bucharest- Ploiesti Road. We initially performed the special foundation and infrastructure works and we are now building the superstructure.

In terms of infrastructure projects, last summer we started the geotechnical works to “ Presei Libere Square Underground Passage” (Bucharest). We are also building bored piles and metal sheet pile retention systems in Craiova on a passage over the railway. Another project is the functional rehabilitation of Revolutiei Square in Slobozia, where we are building sheet pile retention systems and we are performing drilling for dewatering systems. We are also building bored piles for sections A, D and E, sector 2- Lugoj- Deva Highway, for Salini Impregilo.

At the same time we are continuing the retention works with columns and sheet piles at the project “Rehabilitation of Brasov- Simeria railway, Coslariu- Sighisoara section”, where FCC Construccion is the general contractor.

In Iraq we have two projects:  Electric Power Plant 1250 MW Shatt Al Basra in Basra (Iraq) and the residential project Iraq Gate Residential, for Iraqi developer Almco. In both projects we have been contracted for the execution of geotechnical works.

Shatt Al Basra Power Plant- Iraq

Reporter: Many construction companies, among which Octagon, have expended abroad as well. Octagon is developing in Iraq. Is this a good solution for survival during the crisis? 

Alexandros Ignatiadis: Our anchor during the crisis has been the Iraqi market. We have decided to try another market with long term growth perspectives and that has liquidities for infrastructure projects. The security issues have been an addition advantage for us, as they keep competition away. Right now we are building awareness and we are waiting for the political system to stabilize. The fact that we have two ongoing projects is a positive sign and comes as a confirmation of the fact that we had good intuition when we decided to expand there.  

Reporter: Do you plan to expand in other countries as well? If yes, where exactly?

Alexandros Ignatiadis: Right now we are focusing on consolidating our activity in Iraq, but should the opportunity of entering a market with high growth potential arise, we will certainly take it.  

(www.constructiibursa.ro )

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OCTAGON has performed two thirds of the contracted works for the rehabilitation of Brasov- Simeria railway, Coslariu- Sighisoara section

 

OCTAGON HAS ONGOING INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS WORTH AROUND 3 MIL. EURO IN 2014

 

Construction works at Brasov city belt to be resumed. OCTAGON has built bored piles for section I

 

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OCTAGON HAS ONGOING INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS WORTH AROUND 3 MIL. EURO IN 2014

Press      release                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

                                                                                                                                                     September 10^th 2014

Bucharest, September 10^th 2014:  OCTAGON CONTRACTING & ENGINEERING, one of the major players on the geotechnical and civil construction markets in Romania, has won road infrastructure projects worth around 3 million euro in 2014. 

      Four road infrastructure contracts

      Geotechnical works

      Locations: Craiova, Slobozia, Lugoj- Deva

“Even if infrastructure has not been a priority for public investments this year and the market is not going through a dynamic period, we have four new ongoing projects and we are continuing works at the rehabilitation of Brasov- Simeria railroad, a project started in 2012.  But the perspectives for infrastructure development are positive. After four years of slowdown, the infrastructure will inevitably become the engine of the construction market development.” said Mr. Alexandros Ignatiadis, co-founder and shareholder of OCTAGON CONTRACTING & ENGINEERING.

OCTAGON is geotechnical construction contractor at one of the most important infrastructure projects in Bucharest: ”The underground road passage from Piata Presei”, where the company is building diaphragm walls.  The passage will have a total length of 550 meters and two exits. One of the exits will lead to Kiseleff Road and the second one will lead to Marasti Blvd.,  allow crossing the area on any direction and subsequently connect public ground transport, the railway line and the bus lines, with the station of the future metro line 6. The purpose of the passage is to streamline the traffic in one of the most crowded areas of the capital.  

Another important project under construction, within which OCTAGON is working, is Lugoj- Deva Highway. The company is building bored piles for sections A, D and E, sector 2. The highway will stretch over 100 km on delivery.  Sector 2 will be 28 km long.

OCTAGON is performing foundation works: bored piles and sheet piles at the project “Passage over the rail road km 5 + 343” in Craiova.

The fourth project started this year by OCTAGON is  “Functional rehabilitation of Revolutiei Square from Slobozia”. The company is part of ACM4- Romprest- TIAB- OCTAGON Consortium and is performing geotechnical works: metal sheet piles and drilling for dewatering systems, within a parking lot project.

OCTAGON CONTRACTING & ENGINEERING (www.octagon.com.ro ) is a Romanian company set up

in 2005, headquartered in Bucharest. The company also has a branch in Baghdad (Iraq).  With a 19.6 million euro in 2013, large scale projects in Romania, Iraq, Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria, OCTAGON is one of the main players in the civil and geotechnical construction sectors, in Romania. The company has become active in the infrastructure sector in the past five years, when it started contracting important projects.

 

Among the reference works performed by OCTAGON in Romania there are: the office complex Green Court Bucharest (Gara Herastrau Street- Bucharest), the tallest office building in Bucharest Sky Tower (Barbu Vacarescu Blvd.), the office building Olympia Tower (Decebal Blvd.- Bucharest) and the Combined Cycle Power Plant 867 MW OMV- Petrom (Brazi- Prahova county).

Contact

OCTAGON CONTRACTING & ENGINEERING

Corina Ilie

Public relations specialist

Tel: (+40) 769 249 286

E-mail: c.ilie@octagon.com.ro

Construction works at Brasov city belt to be resumed. OCTAGON has built bored piles for section I

Brasov City Belt

Construction works at Brasov city belt, a project that started in 2003 and which was temporarily stopped, will be resumed soon.  Brasov city belt is also one of the road infrastructure projects of OCTAGON CONTRACTING & ENGINEERING. In 2011 the company was geotechnical works subcontractor and built bored piles for section I.

Brasov City Belt- Bored pile cage launching

The National Highways and Roads Company (CNADNR) announced in a press release that the bid procedure for section I, streching between DN1 and DN11 and for section II, which connects DN 11 with DN 13, ended. Brasov city belt will have four sections, a total length of 24.3 km and two lanes on each traffic way. The road, built especially for the transport of merchandise and transit is open to traffic on two of the four sections.  

Brasov City Belt- Bored pile cage ram in

So far only 56% of the works necessary for the completion of section one has been delivered. The section has a length of  7.2 km and starts from Dârstea area (from the current bypass, on which a bridge over Timisul Sec stream will be built), bypasses the landfill,  crosses the road to Tărlungeni, bypasses CET, crosses Timiş-Triaj area, and then reaches DN 11 (towards Sfântu Gheorghe) in the roundabout from Stabilus area. 

Brasov City Belt- Bored pile cages

Besides the two lane traffic road, the project also includes the construction of a passage, crossing DN 11 and the railway that leads to Târgu Secuiesc.

OCTAGON   performed the following works for section I of the city belt: bored piles D 1,080, cage ram in, bored pile concreting and bored pile injection.

Brasov City Belt- Bored pile concreting

Doubling section II which connects DN 11, the exit from Braşov to Hărman, to DN 13, the exit from Braşov to Târgu-Mureş is absolutely necessary in order to allow highway regime traffic. At the same time, an important issue faced by drivers crossing the city belt will be solved, the construction of a road passage over the city belt, at the intersection with the county road to, where many accidents have occurred.

Brasov City Belt- Bored pile drilling

Construction works at Brasov Bypass started in 2003 and so far only section III has been delivered. The section covers 6.3 km and connects National Road 13 with National Road 1, at the exit from the city to Sibiu.

Brasov City Belt- Bored piles concreting

The construction of Brasov Bypass is only one of the road infrastructure projects performed by OCTAGON. 

Road infrastructure became an important segment for the company starting from 2010. OCTAGON  also performed geotechnical works within other major infrastructure projects:  Orastie- Sibiu Highway- sections 2, 3 and 4, Bucharest- Ploiesti Highway,  Bucharest Highway DN 7- DN 1A, Chitila- Mogosoaia, Pedestrian crossing over Mures River and Rehabilitation of DN 6 Domasnea- Caransebes, km 408+ 895- 449+ 960.

Construction works performed by OCTAGON within these projects include:  execution of bored piles, injections and sheet piles.

Brasov City Belt- Cage launching

OCTAGON is performing at present geotechnical works at the “Underground tunnel Piata Presei Libere” (Bucharest). 

At the same time, the company is continuing bracing works with columns and sheet piles at the project “Rehabilitation of Brasov- Simeria railway, Coslariu- Sighisoara section”, where the general contractor is FCC Construccion.

OCTAGON CONTRACTING & ENGINEERING

For more information click HERE. 

Phone: (+4)021.232.39.20

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