Exciting office experience beckons as The Wings enters market with strong value propo sition
In the most formal style before a distinguished audience, The Wings Towers, one of the eye-catching architectural marvels on Ozumba Mbadiwe Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, walked into the property market offering exciting office work experience with its strong and compelling value proposition.
The Wings, a twin-tower building, is a joint venture project by Oando Plc and RMB Westport, a South African real estate investment and development firm. Estate Links Limited and Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) are the lead promoters/leasing agents.
The 14-floor, 27,000 square metre Grade A office complex stands massively by the Five Cowrie Creek, giving it an unrivalled location advantage which is complemented by an existing waterways transportation system. “This is one-of-a-kind development that guarantees its tenants world class experience”, Wallace Wilkins, a director at RMB Westport, explained to BusinessDay in an interview.
At the commissioning of the building last week by Ibe Kachikwu, the minister of state for petroleum, Wale Tinubu, the group chief executive of Oando Plc, disclosed that, at Oando, passion was not only one of their core values, it drives their ambitions, adding that the idea for The Wings Complex was conceived in 2009 but construction kick-started in 2013.
Tinubu recalled that the building started when the price of oil was $100 per barrel, but they still pushed on with construction despite the 2014 crash in oil price to $23 per barrel, the 60 percent devaluation of the naira and the 13-month economic recession.
“Today, the two towers stand tall as a testament to indigenous companies like us who continue to lead and set standard for excellence. The project signifies the end to a series of capital projects that we have pioneered, invested in and built”, he said.
The Wings actually stands tall as a building to beat in terms of elevation and façade. Wilkins says “it is an elegantly designed office building with innovative usage of space to give optimal day-to-day functionality. The building is a seamless business environment that combines functionality, detail, services and comfort for business”.
It is in the league of Heritage Place in Ikoyi and Nestoil Tower in Victoria Island which are, so far, the only green buildings in Nigeria with energy efficiency that leaves tenants/occupiers with reduced energy cost. Heritage Place offers tenants as high as 20 percent energy saving.
Interest in The Wings has been quite encouraging, according to the leasing agents. Gbenga Olaniyan, CEO, Estate Links, confirmed to BusinessDay that while the West wing of the building is occupied by Oando, the East wing, which is open to the public, is 34 percent let, hoping that with the renewed investor interest in the economy, the building will be up to 80 percent let by the end of this year.
In addition to its high-quality finishing and small office plates of 1000 square metres which features 360-degree views to virtually all workstations in any particular tenant layout, The Wings façade gives an alluring feature view of the Lagos city, offering comfort plus quality of work that is comparable to international standards.
“This façade system allows for energy efficiency and adaptability to climatic heat conditions”, explained Lyall Dukes, Associate Executive at Stauch Vorster Architects—the architectural consultants on the building.
Offices in the building are climatically controlled to facilitate maximum comfort with lighting and visual stimulus aimed at enhancing tenant enjoyment and appreciation of the working environment. Duke added that the building also offers a high level of security and comfort to businesses with a high priority on secure operating facilities and peace of mind.
The building has capacity to improve tenant’s operational efficiency and boost employee productivity. “It is a work environment that is a pleasure to use and interact with on a daily basis, and this will result in better productivity and positive attitude. This building is iconic and easily recognizable, creating an association tenants can market and use to their advantage”, Duke noted.
For purposes of security and safety, The Wings has intelligent building management systems (IBMS) which are systems that optimize the centralized control of heating, ventilation, air conditioning and lighting, thus promoting its functionality. The IBMS is also designed to detect potential thieves as warning signals will be triggered if there are any irregularities from particular areas of the building and these features make it an IBMS-compliant building.
The Wings is fully sprinkler-protected with sprinkler and firewater systems supplied via dedicated pumps and tanks. Each tower is provided with two pressurized emergency routes and a fireman’s lift, together with an analogue smoke detection and voice evacuation system.
Separate digital pulse meters are provided to measure individual tenant’s electricity consumption. These digital meters are extremely accurate with negligible errors. Independent meters are provided for every floor and every tenant, in the unlikely event of meter failure.
The building parades such features as dedicated jetty, restaurant and banking hall which differentiate it from its peers. Others are concierge, Wi-Fi connection throughout the building, cell phone reception boosters, LED lighting, motion sensors to all public areas, high surveillance CCTV systems, etc. It also offers rental concessions which include tenant improvement allowances and rent-free periods.
Apart from these features and facilities, The Wings differs from its peers in its core design, shape and orientation which are configured to provide Grade A commercial office space with multi-tenant flexibility.
“Tenants will appreciate the urban views from this high-rise building; there is flexibility and energy efficiency of the floor-plate integrated into the design coupled with amenities and lifestyle/work-style possibilities”, Duke assured.
CHUKA UROKO