Wola reaches skywards

Wola – one of Warsaw’s fastest growing districts – is a planner’s desert. This, however, does not bother investors, since it allows them to put up super-tall buildings

According to Michał Szczerba, leader of Wola District Council: “Our district has no zoning plans, but the opportunity exists for the first one to be approved by Warsaw city council soon. Work is proceeding on a local plan for the ul. Wolska and ul. Płocka area, the vicinity of ul. Księcia Janusza, ul. Towarowa and ul. Okopowa, and also ul. Prosta and Moczydło park.” Data supplied by the city council suggests that several dozen applications were recently received for permits to develop buildings of a height exceeding 80 m in Wola. Some concepts submitted by investors have been given the consent of the city authorities. An anonymous investor – a private individual – intends to develop a residential building 82 m tall with a multi-storey underground garage on ul. Grzybowska. Pirelli Pekao Real Estate is also planning to develop an apartment building of more than 80 m high with underground garages on the same street on neighbouring sites. The Kazimierski i Ryba S. J. Architekci studio has also been given a positive decision to develop an apartment complex on ul. Grzybowska, with office and shopping facilities.

Conflict in a corner

The last unoccupied plots at important junctions in Wola may soon become building sites.. The city council’s of architecture and spatial planning department has given the green light to two investors to develop the junction between ul. Prosta and ul. Towarowa. The Badbum company, which intends to develop a group of residential buildings on the site with office and services functions together with underground garages, may win the day. Apollo Invest also wants to erect a tall, more than 80 m building nearby, to be part of an office and service complex.

AZO has already been granted the development conditions for an office, services, shopping and residential complex on the so-called “Wola Cheese” site between ul. Wolska and ul. Okopowa and al. Solidarności, which has been waiting for investment for many long years. This development is to include several tower buildings more than 100 m high. Elsewhere, an investor has been granted a building permit for a tower building of a height exceeding 80 m at Żelazna 59, designated as a hotel with an office, shopping and services section.

There is going to be quite a battle to develop the quarter between ul. Towarowa, ul. Grzybowska and ul. Łucka. With Eastern Europe and the Kuryłowicz & Associates architectural studio competing for the right to develop buildings there with residential, office, services and shopping functions. Warsaw city council thinks both applicants might be granted permission to develop a residential building with a maximum height of 160 m on the corner of ul. Grzybowska and ul. Wronia, as well as an office building 180 m high with an aerial of app. An additional 70 m. Ghelamco has definite plans for the development of this area and is planning a project on ul. Towarowa, which it is calling Art.-Park. It has purchased a plot for PLN 85 mln through a dependent company where the Military Printing Works once stood. The tender attracted 14 companies, with the reserve price being over PLN 23 mln.

Impexmetal has, for several years, unsuccessfully attempted to get permission to develop 85 m tall tower blocks between ul. Łucka and ul. Prosta. The company had earlier been refused the right to go ahead with such tall buildings, but has appealed against the decision to the Local Government Appeal Board.

The Lewant is hoping to be granted development conditions for a more than 80 m tall office and hotel building on the corner of ul. Towarowa and ul. Chłodna, while a private individual has requested permission to develop a building on ul. Burakowska.

No plan means...

Wola district, still has a lot to offer investors, including fairly good access and a substantial number of commercial and residential building sites. The district still has no spatial development plan, although the local authorities have promised to approve one in the still undefined future. But what might appear to be an evident fault to some is proving an advantage for developers. Companies are being allowed to evelop tall buildings which might have been impossible had a plan existed.   n

Daniel Zyśk