Commercial Real Estate in Accra: Radwan Dakmak Presents A-Grade Office Building Atlantic Tower

Interview with Radwan Dakmak, CEO of Meridian Group

Why did you convert serviced apartments into a commercial building?

The initial plan was to have a serviced apartment building within the complex of the Atlantic Tower so they would complement each other. Visitors or short-term staff who come to Accra to work for multinational companies could make use of the accommodation which is in the same compound. But due to the pandemic in 2020, we decided to put the concept of serviced apartments on hold until we saw how things would change. A lot of companies now have employees working from home, even in Ghana, and the number of expatriates who fly into the country has been drastically reduced so the demand for serviced apartments attached to a commercial building has also dropped. That is why we decided to convert the serviced apartment building into a commercial building. The other thing that pushed us to do it is that Atlantic Tower is fully occupied and because there is a need for more office space, we thought we might as well add more commercial offices. The general market trend is still slow but there are some companies in Atlantic Tower that want to expand so that also prompted us to convert the serviced apartment building into a commercial building.

What kinds of trends are you seeing in the market?

We have the EDGE certification for excellence which proves that Atlantic Tower was built with good quality materials and is energy efficient.

We are in an uncertain environment. Because of the new variant of COVID-19, flights to and from South Africa have been affected. The world is a global village now and one problem somewhere can cause a ripple effect. Stocks went down all around the world; the price of oil fell and all of this in one way or another is affecting us in the business community. We need to be very careful and cautious before making any business decisions, especially in real estate because the costs involved are tremendous. In our case, we had already spent a fortune in designing the property as serviced hotel apartments then suddenly the pandemic came, and we had to change everything. We had to break down a lot of the structures that were up to convert it into a commercial building. You cannot keep on changing in terms of design. Now that we have moved into the commercial space, we have to continue until the end. The key to success is adaptation to the current situation. The coronavirus is likely to keep on mutating, so we need to adapt.

There is demand. Atlantic Tower 1 is full, and we have probably 25% to 30% demand for occupancy in the new structure that we can secure immediately if there are no more big changes that happen around the world.

What are the advantages of choosing Atlantic Tower?

Number 1 is Airport City is one of the best locations in Accra for commercial real estate. Number 2 is the quality and that is why we have the EDGE (Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies) certification for excellence that we got two years ago. It proves that Atlantic Tower was built with good quality materials and is energy efficient. Number 3 is the service that we provide. We are on top of our game, we have maintenance staff that make sure all the needs of our clients are met. Number 4 is our pricing. We have lowered our rents by about 25% because we understand the market conditions. We have a tenant in Atlantic Tower called Regus. It is a worldwide service provider of serviced offices, and can rent spaces for a week, a month, two months or whatever time companies need when they come to Ghana. They occupy about 2,000 square meters which has been sub-divided into smaller areas which can cater for shorter-term business requirements.

Who are some of the other tenants in Atlantic Tower?

Nestle is our biggest tenant. They moved in from one of the properties within the area in 2020. There is Aker Energy, one of the biggest oil and gas companies in Ghana. We also have British Petroleum that has a smaller office. There is a Spanish company called GB Foods which has factories all over Africa and this is their Central African head office located in Ghana. We have VFS, the company that issues visas, Omni Bank which is a local bank in Ghana, and car showrooms for Ford and BMW. Both of them are represented by the Tractafric dealership in Ghana.

In addition, in Tower B we have Turkish Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Meridian Port Services, and Baj Freight.

What space availability do you think you will have in 2022 when the conversion is completed?

At the moment, Atlantic Tower is fully occupied and that is one of the reasons why we want to convert Tower B into offices. We believe there is demand and when it is done, we should be able to fill it, especially as we will use the same quality materials that we used in Atlantic 1.

It will be an A-Grade building of the best quality similar to Atlantic 1 and we believe we will do the same, if not better. Some new designs have been developed that we will be implementing in Atlantic 2. It will actually be an upgrade of Atlantic 1.

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