Sri Lanka’s IT industry shifts to Orion City with first Orion Tower opening
View(s):Colombo’s highly anticipated Orion City Towers opened on Wednesday, with this transformational 500,000 square foot structure challenging the Colombo skyline and promising its occupants the height of sophisticated end to end business solutions.
It will be occupied by Sri Lanka’s corporate movers and shakers and forms a part of the developmental masterplan of the Orion City IT Park- the unique one stop hub for innovation and collaboration in Sri Lanka, the owning company said in a media release.
The towers soaring above its neighbours into the skyline at an impressive 85 metres offer up to 20 levels of prime office space for rent with ancillary facilities such as retail and commercial areas, a boutique sky hotel, green eco decks and a sky courtyard. The topmost floor is home to a fully equipped gym, business centre, lounge areas, meeting venues and private dining facilities. Occupants will never want for anything once they enter the complex, says Orion City Managing Director E.J. Gnanam. “We’ve built Orion Towers, to be a city within a city- the crown jewel of the Orion City IT Park,” he says. “Buildings should challenge and inspire- our partnership with DP Architects Singapore and the Balmond Studio has delivered a stunning structure for work and play.”
It was Tower One that opened for occupation in July. The first level of the tower is a retail mall space with banks, a laundromat, homeware, supermarket and bakery; and a food court at the second level, with parking spaces from levels 3-8. Level 9 will be home to a co-working space known as ‘NEST’. The office spaces will be housed in levels 10-18 with a business hotel Elyon Colombo managed by Elyon on levels 19-20. The tower also includes a sky garden, restaurant and bar.
Tower one conforms to stringent international standards and regulations and is also LEED Gold certified, one of the only structures to do so in Colombo. This comes on the heels of a sophisticated energy efficient building design considering that Orion offers its occupants energy saving systems to enable 24/7 operations, fully serviced stations, plug-and-play workstations and expandable offices. Companies can even use the prestigious Orion address as a virtual office while Orion NEST aims to provide a nurturing environment for start-up growth. The unique positioning of Orion NEST at a space for industry giants is deliberate, to encourage likeminded start-ups to share a co-working space with each other and network with established industry leaders.