Quinta da Fonte Business Ecosystem – Providing the perfect work-life balance
When it was launched in 1995, Quinta da Fonte was one of the first office parks to understand the need to connect both high-quality real estate and its ‘countryside’ surroundings. Today, under new management, it has refurbished and repositioned the park to create a high-calibre environment for premium occupiers.
The Quinta da Fonte office park in Oeiras Valley is today one of the flagship parks of its kind in Portugal.
The office park is a favoured business address for white-collar and blue-chip multinational pharmaceutical, engineering, financial services and technology companies.
Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, it has over the past two years invested heavily in renovating its outdoor areas, particularly the gardens, and has installed support and convenience services and reimagined and created leisure areas as part of a new environmental agenda.
Founded in 1995, and strategically placed on the A5 motorway which rapidly takes office workers to Lisbon and Lisbon airport (15km), Oeiras and Cascais, it has over 5000 people working there at 45 national and international companies which are some of the best in Portugal and include Amplexor, DXC Technology, Electrolux, Europecar, Holmes Place, HP, MSD, P&G, Regus, Schweppes and Whitestar Asset Solutions to name a few.
These are distributed in 21 office buildings, providing a total of 80,177 m2 of rented office space with 3,483 parking spaces, surrounded by five gardens and leisure spaces, a 2,400 m2 health club, six restaurants, hairdresser’s, a newsagent’s, post office, ATM cashpoints, a pharmacy and convenience store.
Big-ticket contracts
Despite the economic downturn and health restrictions caused by the Coronavirus pandemic, office rental take-up has been brisk in 2020. In one of the most significant office rental transactions in Portugal, three entire buildings at Quinta da Fonte have been taken by an expanding multinational.
Quinta da Fonte is majority controlled by Acacia Point Capital which has a portfolio of 15 office buildings in the park progressively acquired over the past two years.
Acacia Point Capital and the pan-European fund Signal Capital Partners, LLP acquired in 2020 three office buildings which had belonged to a defunct Portuguese banking group.
The transaction was structured so that Acacia Point Capital could refurbish these capex-starved buildings prior to acquisition, which then enabled a substantial pre-letting to be secured in advance of purchase.
An integrated management approach
During this period the park overall has benefited from extensive refurbishment and repositioning initiatives, which has seen it attract premium occupiers seeking a high calibre office environment for their employers and customers as Luís Rocha Antunes, Partner and General Director of Acacia Point Capital Advisors Portugal explains:
“Two years ago, when Acacia Point Capital took control of Quinta da Fonte, there hadn’t really been an integrated management approach for the business park.”
“When we began doing our internal brand forming and were thinking about how we wanted to protect Quinta da Fonte we realised two things: first, we have a rather interesting legacy in that QF was the first large office park on the Greater Lisbon Western Corridor, with blue-chip companies like Microsoft and the first Holmes Place and was a place of prestige,” he explains.
“Over the last few years with the brand Oeiras Valley and its values, we noticed that many of these values were our values and what Oeiras Valley wants to be, so we want to be,” says Rocha Antunes.
The QF general director says that there was a perception that everything along the Western Corridor all seemed the same, and that companies only went there to cut costs. “Our vision is the opposite — we offer excellence, lifestyle and work-style quality, wellness, comfort and a good forum for investors.”
Luís Rocha Antunes says that their focus over the past two years has been about repositioning Quinta da Fonte, and the idea arose to change the name from Quinta da Fonte Office Park to Quinta da Fonte Business Ecosystem and there was a certain scepticism
“Today, with the pandemic, this vision of the environment, ecology, open space and a modern clean environment with green areas and parks is a lot more clear and makes sense. All of the companies and entities that work in the Oeiras Valley business ecosystem are intrinsically interlinked, and we are not just an economic ecosystem but also an environmental ecosystem of health and wellbeing,” he says.
The Acacia Point Capital partner says that QF is in the centre of Oeiras Valley, with a good blend between old, historic Oeiras with the 18th-century farm and charming architecture and ultra-modern and functional buildings. “We are proud to be in Oeiras Valley, we have a €2.7 million viaduct from the council which reduces traffic, increases mobility and offers an alternative to the A5 motorway, and we share the same values and ambitions,” reflects Luís Rocha Antunes.
“Over the past two years, we’ve realised that many of our core values and ambitions for Quinta da Fonte align with those of Oeiras Valley.”
All of the companies and entities that work in the Oeiras Valley business ecosystem are intrinsically interlinked. We’re not just an economic ecosystem but also an environmental one.”
Text: Chris Graeme