Centre of attention

Piotrków Trybunalski is a centrally located town off the A1 motorway south of Łódź. With a population of around 80,000, it does not rank amongst the so-called ‘smaller cities’ of 100,000 people or more that developers have been recently flocking to

To look at, it is quite unremarkable, with a rather shabby looking town centre. Blink, and you could miss any evidence of significant modern developments having ever taken place here. Since it was founded in the middle ages, Piotrków’s development has always been bound up with its central position in the country, and the fact that it has always been well connected to other major settlements in terms in the road network. This has never been more true than today, as it has become something of a hub in the sector for which location and transportation are the most important factors: logistics and warehousing

A number of major industrial developers have already been attracted to Piotrków, not only due to its location and access to the highways, but according to Cushman & Wakefield, the availability of land in the area at low prices is also an incentive for industrial developers. Cushman & Wakefield also estimates that rents are the lowest in the region, at around EUR 2.5 to EUR 3.5 per sqm monthly. Two giant warehousing parks are currently under construction in Piotrków: Logistic City-Piotrków Distribution Centre – of which local firm Emerson is the main investor, and Poland Central from the E2 fund (set up by Investkredit and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development). Once completed, these facilities are likely to provide much of the town’s employment.

Coming soon

Logistic City is being developed in stages next to the E67 road linking the town with Warsaw and Wrocław. Currently it offers 48,000 sqm of space with 47,000 sqm under construction and will eventually have a total area of nearly 413,000 sqm of industrial space. Tenants already signed up for the warehousing include M&M – an international forwarding company (21,000 sqm) and ColepCCL (11,000 sqm).

The Poland Central logistic park is located to the north of the town in Wola Bykowska, covering an area of 122 ha. Managed by Europolis, it is a EUR 172 mln investment which will eventually provide 500,000 sqm of warehousing and light production space when completed in around 2014. The first 43,200 sqm building out of an eventual 20 has already been completed, with Rossmann Poland occupying 10,000 sqm of the facility. Building permits for the next 2 buildings have been already been applied for, measuring 55,000 sqm and 33,000 sqm, which means that it is possible for construction work to begin before the end of the year.

US logistics giant ProLogis also has one of its warehousing parks located in Piotrków. ProLogis Park Piotrków currently consists of 3 buildings, each of which were built-to-suit for clients. The first of these was built for Ahold (part of the Carrefour group) in 2002 and measures 21,214 sqm. The next came in 2003 – a 39,000 sqm facility for Unilever; and the third was built for garden goods retailer Nomi in 2005, measuring 12,072 sqm. The total leasable space of 73,000 sqm is now be added to by a 10,500 sqm extension to Unilever’s warehouse. ProLogis’ recent take-over of its UK rival Parkridge’s industrial business meant that the American developer also acquired land in Piotrków that had earlier been bought by the British as the intended site of a warehousing park of their own. This is to be ProLogis Park Piotrków II, construction work on which may start this or next year. A possible 5 buildings could be developed, with a target area of 115,000 sqm.

In the zone

In addition to the logistics parks in the Piotrków area, there are also a number of large scale industrial facilities in the area, including the Kaufland Logistics Centre in Wola Krzysztoporska, which is located on a 24-ha site, of which 120,000 sqm is building land. On the northern fringe of Piotrków, Ikea has opened a regional distribution centre on a 47-ha plot with 100,000 sqm of building land. And on a site within the Łódź Special Economic Zone (9-ha of which lies in Piotrków), German machinery manufacturer Haering has located its biggest investment outside its home country – and the biggest in the SEZ – worth EUR 70 mln. The existing plant is being expanded and will eventually employ 700 people, with the town council also claiming that 1,500 subcontractors will be employed by the firm.

The shopping scene

As far as modern retail goes, there are currently only 3 existing medium-sized shopping centres: a Kaufland store (6,730 sqm total area) and one developed by Bricomarche/Intermarche (4,569 sqm total area), as well as a 16,345 sqm shopping centre developed by Echo Investment, whose anchor tenants are Carrefour and Nomi. In a town with a population of 80,000, this seems to be far from adequate, especially when considering the boost to local employment given by the industry in the area.

Malls make an entrance

Developers of larger shopping malls are now finally beginning to appreciate this, as this year work started on 2 significant retail projects. The first of these comes from Echo Investment, which has started the development of a recreation-shopping mall to replace its existing centre on ul. Gen. Sikorskiego. This will have a total area of 80,000 sqm – 37,000 sqm of which will be GLA. It will contain 120 stores, catering facilities, a car park for 1,200 vehicles and a 5-screen Helios multiplex cinema. This project is scheduled for completion in 2009.

Another big retail developer now making an entrance is Parkridge Retail Poland, which last month held a cornerstone ceremony for one of its Focus Park shopping and entertainment complexes on a site between ul. Kostromska, ul. Słowackiego and ul. Modrzewskiego outside the town centre. This investment is a partnership with local developer EmersonThe mall will have a total area of 75,000 sqm – 34,000 sqm of which will be leasable. Once completed, it will have 2 shopping levels with approximately 120 shops, a multi-screen cinema and a three level car park. Total investment costs are estimated at EUR 75-80 mln, with the centre scheduled to open in September 2009. Parkridge has previously only developed Focus Parks in medium-sized cities, but Piotrków is to date the smallest town that has been chosen as a location for one of these complexes and represents something of a departure from their former strategy. According to Alan Stainforth, the chief operating officer for Parkridge Holdings (the mother company), Piotrków “fulfils all the criteria for a shopping centre development in that there is nothing that we would regard as competition here.”

Post-industrial shopping

Another interesting retail project is the renovation of the former Sigmatex fabrics factory at ul. Sulejowska 45 outside the town centre. Developer TMR bought the old plant at the end of May last year and is now planning to convert it into a 12,000 sqm retail and services complex to be known as Manufaktura by 2009 or 2010. The architect responsible for the design of the revitalized building is Jerzy Lutomski.

The office sector

Other than facilities provided by the local warehousing parks, the office sector in Piotrków has still to take off in any meaningful way. The existing stock is generally to be found in the very centre of town. On ul. Armii Krajowej at numbers 18 and 22 there are 2 office buildings (2,300 sqm and 1,500 sqm respectively). In the same plot as the second of these, a hotel is currently under development. There are also offices to be found at al. 30-Maja 2 (3,500 sqm) and at ul. Słowackiego 1/pl. Kościuszki 3 (1,500 sqm).

The residential sector

As is the case elsewhere in Poland, the Piotrków residential market is busy. Prices for apartments in the primary market currently stand at between PLN 3,600–4,000 per sqm. For the larger secondary market, a house will cost in the region of PLN 2,400-3,400 per sqm and the prices of flats are at around PLN 2,500-3,500 per sqm. At the moment there are a number of local developers with residential projects in the town. As well as developing a 3-star hotel at ul. Armii Krajowej 22C, PPHU Zbigniew Wilk (ZW) is putting up apartment blocks on ul. Broniewskiego, ul. Złota (ready in June 2008), ul. Dmowskiego (stage II already sold out), at ul. Narutowicza 31 and at ul. Armii Krajowej 22A and 22C. Another local firm, Baas, also has a project at ul. Modrzweskiego 28-30, with apartments of between 34 sqm and 74 sqm.     n

Nathan North