Life after life

 The hunger for building sites is of concern in all fields of development, although it is retail investors who seem to suffer the most. The reason for such decisions can be found in the popular adage that the success of developments depends on three factors: location, location and location.

Investing on post-industrial land is part of the strategy of Parkridge CE Retail, which develops its centres in towns with populations between 100,000 and 400,000. Four of the five Focus Parks it has under development are on revitalized land.

In Mr Fijałkowski’s opinion, the post-industrial land selected by his company as locations for investments is more attractive than plots devoid of buildings. Jarosław Fijałkowski claims in very definite terms that: „Post-industrial buildings have a specific and unique character, which means that each of the centres we develop has its own history and atmosphere. And these places are also guided by their own laws since many of their elements are listed – under the watchful eye of the local historical buildings conservator – and cannot be demolished. It takes a design team much longer to plan such buildings effectively in a city centre, but the end effect is invariably hugely satisfying.”

Investors who decide to develop on revitalized plots are often haunted by ghosts of times past. They need to be aware of the ghouls that roam former coal-mining land and others that terrorize erstwhile factory sites. Kraków’s Galeria Kazimierz was built on a site where a slaughter house had operated at the turn of the 19th century. Roman Czarnecki, project manager of the Division of Commercial Buildings in Tebodin SAP-Projekt says: „The land could have been contaminated by biological substances (e.g. from the blood tanks which once stood there) and also from chemicals, which meant the soil had to be thoroughly checked. Luckily the soil was not contaminated but had to be changed anyway since its load capacity was insufficient for the planned investment. Another headache that had to be remedied was the need to liquidate an old ammonia system and also to undertake mycological tests. The latter led to the development and implementation of a method to eliminate dry rot in the buildings which were to be adapted.”

Other investment-related problems are encountered in post-coalmining sites, which are proving popular – particularly in Silesia.

Simon Bayley, the Silesia City Center project director of TriGránit, describes what had to be done: „Around 170 holes had to be bored and 50 trenches dug for necessary testing, together with a wide–ranging programme of laboratory and chemical research. In excess of a dozen former coal-mine buildings had to be demolished (apart from the three which were saved for historical reasons), while all underground systems had to be deactivated.”

3,000 cubic metres of cement and ash mixes were used for the filling while a further According to Roman Czarnecki of Tebodin SAP-Projekt: „Regardless of the region, chemical contamination with heavy metals (e.g. mercury), petroleum-origin substances and transformer oil which contains carcinogenic ingredients, is also frequently present.” To avoid any risk of contamination, samples of the walls and floors of existing buildings and systems were taken, as well as from land boreholes, and subjected to analysis.

Archaeological and conservation protection must be carried out daily –An investor who prefers to remain anonymous admits to being “in a permanent subconscious state of worry, waiting for a phone-call from the building site informing me that something of value has been excavated.” The discovery of something of historical value could mean a halt to investment operations for several months and enormous losses.

Consultations with the conservators of historical buildings are also far from simple, their offices being empowered to demand the reconstruction of original structures and the preservation of parts of existing buildings which are not up to present construction standards, e.g. unstable walls, or floors of an inadequate carrying capacity. These decisions, too, can prolong the investment process and increase the costs of the project.

Land tests and revitalizing work prolong the investment process, and time is money – which is also true in this case. As in the Kaufland project, the construction of a hypermarket can be delayed by around a month. The increase in the investment cost is an issue which depends on the state of devastation of the property and on the project’s underlying conditions. For instance, in the case of Silesia City Center, Chelverton – a British company – paid part of the cost of analyzing the land. Then TriGránit, a Hungarian company, took over the investment, but the costs which TriGránit incurred amounted to more than 5 pct of the entire investment, which reached the sum of EUR 100 mln. An identical value of 5 pct was given by Mitex for the also costly Piekary Śląskie investment.