Austrian real estate investment company S Immo has started the construction of a new office project in Bucharest, Romania-Insider informs. 

The Mark office project, which is located close to Victoriei Square, is the first big development in Bucharest’s central business district after 10 years. It includes two office buildings, a 14-storey tower and a 6-level podium building, with a gross leasable area of about 24,000 sqm.

The construction work started in July 2016 and is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2018, with Austrian group Strabag in charge of the project. Chapman Taylor architecture firm did the design.

The leasing process will start in the fourth quarter of 2016, with CBRE and Jones Lang LaSalle to act as the project’s co-exclusive leasing agents.

S Immo is part of Austrian Erste group. The company also owns the Novotel hotel on Calea Victoriei, the Sun Plaza shopping center and the Sun Offices project in southern Bucharest. The developer started the expansion of Sun Plaza earlier this year. The work should be finalized in 2018.

Bucharest’s office market has seen a strong increase in recent years and several big international developers as well as local investors are currently developing new office projects in several areas.