“We’ve been preparing for the return to the workplace since the beginning of the lockdown. Even though the return will happen in waves, we are aware that it is a stressful subject for all our tenants and their employees. Therefore we’ve been proactive, helping them not only by assuring a healthy and safe environment for everyone, but also in planning their own paradigms and even behaviors and protocols”, Vlad Buzoianu, CEO – Cluj Business Campus.
We have tried to understand what will be important to us people in the post-COVID world, address those expectations and adapt our buildings accordingly. Besides the intensified cleaning and sanitizing protocols, we focused on the indoor air quality. We redesigned the air-filtration systems to bring 100% fresh air into spaces, added UV lights to purify the air influx and increased the regularity of the HVAC system maintenance works. To really help reduce the spread of the virus in the campus, we invested in body temperature sensing security cameras designed to rapidly pre-screen individuals before they enter each building. Another important measure is that we’re currently discussing a potential collaboration with Telios to offer telemedicine services to all members of our community later on, in 2020. Our protocols also forbid access in our buildings without wearing PPE, but we hope this is already a common-sense measure of personal protection for everyone. We have also sent all our tenants guidelines for what makes a workplace safe and provided ideas they can adopt now as the first wave of employees return to the office in a responsible way that looks ahead to the near and far. We believe that all these initiatives will strengthen the confidence of our community that we are taking all possible measures in our power to assure an environment which promotes health, physical and emotional wellbeing now more than ever before.
What is the status of your current project(s) and investments planned for 2020-2021?
Fortunately, even if everything seems to be uncertain, we are glad to announce that the date of completion for the entire Cluj Business Campus project remains unaffected – 1st of September. The 3rd building is already finalized and our tenants are already developing fit out works inside, but until September 2020, we will make sure that all the details have been covered, including the outdoor works. CBC is a mixed real estate project, developed during the last 7 years, which includes 3 office buildings, with a total renting surface of 30 000 square meters, 180 apartments and diverse business and after business services such as: bistro, gym, interior park, kindergarten, private school, IT school, panoramic rooftops, coffee shops, sports pitch, charging spots for electrical cars. A total investment of 25 mil. Euro. Regarding future investments, I can assure you that our plans for development remain the same, although I would like to keep them secret for the moment, as there is no official announcement yet. As a sneak peak, I can only say that we’re planning to take the idea of community to a whole new level, throughout a new business campus, located near Cluj, in the middle of nature, and surrounded by a wake-boarding lake and many other facilities. This image motivated us to keep on doing our best and keeping our standards high even in these difficult times. Now, more than ever, we believe that our own way of doing things in the real estate sector and our coming project will embody the future of workplaces. Given the pandemic situation, there’s little chance we will be able to organize the inauguration party we promised for CBC or the launch party for the new project, but I am confident we will come back stronger after defeating this coronavirus. And I promise we will catch up with the partying.
What is your message to clients and partners?
As we’ve always said, the wellbeing of our CBC community is our priority, now that we have built a community on entrepreneurial spirit and shared values. I can confirm that CBC will continue to anticipate the needs of our tenants and employees as people return to the office. We will constantly adapt our strategies to respond to this complex issue and always be there for our tenants so that, together, we will thrive in this normality and the next one.
Initial response
Even before the Coronavirus disease started to become a serious threat in Romania, we’ve implemented a strict cleaning routine in our buildings and have placed in all the reception areas dispensers with alcohol-based disinfectants. I am very grateful to our teams and partners who were present at the office each day to ensure that the buildings remain safe for our colleagues and tenants. When the first official cases were announced, before the lockdown, we decided to close the CBC Fitness Corner gym and the CBC Bistro. Things evolved quickly, but we’ve made all the efforts to remain close to our community, even in the social distancing context. For example, our colleagues at the gym were among the first fitness trainers in Cluj-Napoca to offer daily free online trainings in order to keep the community members active while working from home. For the CBC management team, caring for our community – not only the CBC community, but also the local one – was always one of our top priorities. Therefore, we joint forces with the Beard Brothers NGO and donated 10 000 Euro to reduce the side effects of the pandemic on the local health system. This contribution was intended also to encourage40other companies in our business community to act and support our common interest in these difficult times, Vlad Buzoianu, CEO – Cluj Business Campus.
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