US capital company Harbortouch, which develops innovative payment solutions in shopping malls, will establish its first product development and production unit outside its home market in Vilnius. The US payment terminal giant will place its first 60 IT specialists in the Eika business center in the Business Triangle.
When choosing a location for investments, the company also considered other Central and Eastern European countries, such as: the Czech Republic, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Hungary, Romania and others. “Having narrowed down the list of possible countries for business development, we settled on the Czech Republic and Lithuania – we chose the latter because of the talented information technology specialists and convenient infrastructure here. The board members and investors liked the Lithuanian culture and friendly people. Lithuania also has one of the most attractive ecosystems for “startups” – Tadas Vizgirda, CEO of the company “Harbortouch”, lists the advantages.
Having signed a five-year lease agreement in April, the company “Harbortouch” will move into 380 square meters of office space on the sixth floor of building A of the “Eika” business center at the beginning of the summer. Although the move is just starting, the company is already planning further expansion in the business center. “The main criteria that determined the choice of this business center: convenient transportation, unique landscape with a view of the Neris River, nearby restaurants and shopping centers, and good parking conditions,” says Tadas Vizgirda.
The Eika business center periodically invests in system modernization in order to improve the quality of services provided. The installed parking system has allowed for a more efficient distribution of parking spaces and to offer more of them to tenants. The center has 563 spaces in multi-storey car parks. “There is one parking space per 27.5 square meters of office space. This is one of the best indicators on the market,” says Giedrius Brūzgė, Director of the Property Management Department.
The Eika business center also pays great attention to building a community. Every month, brainstorming sessions and a business breakfast with an invited guest are organized for the business center’s employees, and in September, an annual celebration is held on the roof of the car park to celebrate the beginning of the new working season. “From the very beginning of the business center’s establishment, we aimed to make it an extraordinary place, created not only for work, but also for communication,” says Giedrius Brūzgė.
Currently, most of the offices in the Eika business center are leased, with less than five percent of the leased area vacant. Starting July 1, the game development and publishing studio Nordcurrent Group will also double its leased area, moving to a more spacious 550 square meter office space on the fifth floor of Building A.
About the Eika group of companies
Founded in 1992, EIKA is one of the largest real estate development and construction groups in Lithuania, successfully developing residential, commercial, public and other purpose building projects, creating a new quality of life and work. The company has already built almost 4,000 apartments and 320 thousand square meters of buildings. EIKA has been awarded many times as the best real estate developer in Lithuania, and the company’s projects “Santariškių namai” and “Eika namai Pilaitė” have also become the best in Lithuania.