“As we work with smart payments, we can see how the rapid market growth of recent years has been further boosted by consumer habits changing during the lockdown where electronic payments were fundamentally dominant. It is appealing to expand a global business in Kaunas given the plenty of high calibre staff, and in order to satisfy their needs, we sought a modern office which could grow alongside the company. The BLC business centre in the heart of the city, next to the recently-revitalised Unity Square, was an excellent fit for our needs and so we chose an office twice the size of our previous one,” Rūta Petravičienė, managing director at Tribe Payments, says.
Tribe Payments will settle across an entire floor of the BLC business centre’s building B, and staff had a say in how the offices were fitted out. The expanding Lithuanian branch of Tribe Payments currently has 60 staff.
“We see the potential for fintech and information technology development in Kaunas. As such, the recently completed BLC 2 business centre can offer new class A premises, which match companies’ strategic goals and development plans. The fintech market is in dynamic development, hence we fit out offices as per the requirements of our new tenants within the shortest time possible. We plan for Tribe Payments to move into BLC 2 in September, and in total some 60 per cent of the BLC business centre’s space has already been rented out or reserved,” SBA real estate company Urban Inventors head Lionginas Šepetys says.
According to Šepetys, as lockdown restrictions are gradually lifting, tenants are returning to their offices in stages, and negotiations on tenancy in the new BLC business centre are also becoming more active. Currently, negotiations are ongoing with international business representatives, IT companies, start-ups, and also with small local companies, and requirements for office sizes differ from several tens to a thousand or more square metres.
According to Šepetys, the newly built 13 thousand square metre business centre makes use of the most advanced technologies, and ensures the best conditions for productive work. Due to its strategically convenient location, tenants will find it easy to coordinate work and rest. BLC 2 is also host to two conference halls and four meeting rooms with the first floor of the building already making use of a fully operational restaurant zone. On the roof of building C, a terrace will be installed with a view of the very same Unity Square that SBA renewed, and an exceptional panorama of Kaunas which all tenants will be able to enjoy. Under Unity Square, next to the BLC business centre, a 500-space parking lot has been built.
The BLC 2 business centre, built next to Unity Square, has been classified as being energy class A+. SBA investment into the business centre and the renewal of Unity Square reached 40 million euros.
Tribe Payments is a UK-based payment start-up with a branch in Lithuania. Tribe Payments are financial technology creators are changing the rules of the game in the payments ecosystem. The company creates successful products for the fintech sector, including electronic wallets, payment card payment processors, online payment collection and money transfer projects. The company’s headquarters is situated in London’s Shard skyscraper. The Tribe Payments branch is planning further expansion.
The SBA Group is one of the largest in the country, operating in real estate, textile and furniture manufacturing sectors and its companies employ close to 5,000 employees. SBA’s real estate sector includes Urban Inventors, which is developing the Green Hall business valley in Vilnius and the BLC business centre in Kaunas, and also the investment management company Capitalica Asset Management which manages the Kaunas based business centre Kauno Dokas, the Vilnius based 135, and will develop the modern office compound Verde in Riga’s Skanste area close to the city centre. Other than Kauno Baldai, the furniture sector is comprised of the SBA Furniture Company, which manages Klaipėdos Baldai, Šilutės Baldai, Germanika, Visagino Linija, Mebelain. The SBA textiles sector is comprised of the innovative apparel manufacturer Utenos Trikotažas together with the companies Šatrija and Mrija. Last year, SBA obtained the robotics solutions company Robotex and founded SBA Modular, which plans to construct modular multi-storey buildings.
