Call for expression of interest for the prospection of the market for the search of new premises for the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), Vienna, Austria

Deutsche Version

1. Introduction and objective

The Agency is looking for new premises that will accommodate its current and future needs. To this regard, the Agency intends to conclude a lease agreement for the rental of new premises.

2. Expression of interest

2.1 Requirements of the Agency for the premises:

• The premises should be located in the inner city or the inner districts of Vienna (Districts 1-9) as well as in well-connected districts like the 10th or 22nd and should be easily accessible by public transport.
• The premises should accommodate at least between 110 to 120 office desks, as well as meeting rooms, storage and related spaces (indicatively, the Agency estimates the space needed to be around 3,000 m² to 3,500 m²).
• The premises should provide a modern, collaborative dynamic workspace environment including the necessary installations for IT network, cooling, meeting rooms.
• The building must comply with the national legislation and be available for occupancy (including completion of the fit-out works) before June 2026.
• The proposed office space should meet at least one of the following green standards:
  • BREEAM – Outstanding
  • LEED - Platinum
  • DGBN - Platinum 
  • or equivalent

Note for information: The Agency aims at becoming carbon emissions neutral by 2030. Therefore, candidates offering a building contributing to achieve that objective will be awarded higher scores during the technical evaluation (see Section 3 below).

2.2 Details for the procedure

If you would like to participate in this negotiated procedure, please register your interest by e-mail to procurement@fra.europa.eu, including your contact details (name, organisation, address, country and e-mail) not later than 30 August 2024 (17:00 CET - Vienna local time). Please do not send any additional information at this stage.

All candidates having expressed interest within the deadline above will be invited to a negotiated procedure without prior publication of a contract notice in accordance with point 11.1 (g) Annex 1 of the Financial Regulation and will receive the necessary documents to submit a tender for the conclusion of the lease agreement (see Section 3 below).

3. Expected phases and timeline 

• Phase 1 - Prospection of the market (current step) 
  • 1.1 Publication of the call for expression of interest to prospect the market - estimated July 2024. 
  • 1.2 Outcome of the prospection of the market: list of candidates which will be invited to the negotiated procedure – estimated September 2024. 
• Phase 2 - Negotiated procedure – estimated September 2024 – March 2025 
  • 2.1 Sending invitations to the negotiated procedure, including all documents necessary to prepare a tender - estimated September 2024. 
  • 2.2 Submission of proposals from invited candidates - estimated September - November 2024. 2.2 Evaluation of tenders received/negotiations - estimated December 2024 - February 2025. 
  • 2.3 Negotiation of the final contract with the selected building owner/representative estimated March - May 2025. 
• Phase 3 - Approval and signature of the contract 
  • 3.1 Submission to the budgetary authority (European Parliament and Council) of the building contract for approval - estimated May – June 2025. 
  • 3.2 Award decision - signature of the lease contract - estimated June- July 2025.