Business centres and transport: how the management company can make life easier for users.
Questions of transport and management of business centres intersect in at least three places: access, parking, and provision for electric cars and other eco-friendly vehicles.
Transport access is decisive for the class of a business centre. Convenient approaches for motorists are particularly important, but they are only a part of the story. Users should also be able to reach the business centre by public transport, and there must be safe and convenient pedestrian paths to the nearest metro and bus stops. Ideally, pedestrian approaches to a building should be isolated from traffic in order to ensure the safety of all road users.
A dedicated parking lot is also crucial for a quality business centre. Potential tenants will pay careful attention to parking capacity, both for their employees and for their guests, who will be unimpressed if they cannot to find a parking space. Organization of arrival and departure to the parking lot is also an indicator of quality. Class-A offices should have special access and parking arrangements for executive-class cars.
Provision for owners of electric vehicles, bicycles and scooters is a theme in itself, particularly for business centres in Moscow, where a project is underway to convert transport infrastructure to electric formats. Around 200 charging stations for electric vehicles have been installed in the Russian capital since last year and at least 600 are planned by 2023.
Facilities managed by O1 Standard are already installing fast charging stations for electric cars. In 2020, the first publicly available station was unveiled in the parking lot at the iCUBE business centre. Several more stations are being installed at the company’s facilities this year.
However, electric or not, cars clog the urban space, and the advantages of bicycles and scooters are obvious. This year electric scooters are suddenly everywhere to be seen in Moscow and O1 Standard is working to make provision for them at business centres
The green agenda for commercial real estate goes beyond the installation of charging points in business centre car parks. It is a long list of measures to improve the overall environmental efficiency of business centres. O1 Standard caries out regular audits of engineering solutions and infrastructure at its buildings for compliance with environmental standards.
