Hungarian investment army on the move

Sándor Demján, the head of TriGránit, has promised not to start taking things easy after the completion of Silesia City in Katowice. The Hungarian entrepreneur intends to continue his activity in Poland with large multifunctional projects, although he has not yet found suitable sites despite a two year search

"The Polish market seems to have room for 10 to 12 complexes similar to Silesia City," says Sándor Demján, a founder of the TriGránit Development Corporation, who hopes to acquire a plot for another project before the year\'s end. But will he succeed in the next few months? It is no secret that this developer has been looking at sites throughout Poland for quite some time.

Silesia - where a concept proved its value
Sándor Demján avoids giving interviews to the press, which was why \'Eurobuild\' took the opportunity to ask him a few questions at the CEE Quality Awards ceremony in February. The award he won, by the way, was for Lifetime Achievement in business. Replying to our questions, he painted a picture of his vision: "We intend to develop huge urban centres which will become meeting places for all types of people. The commercial function of these complexes will be combined with housing, with the centres containing homes and offices as well as retail outlets. Our future investments will take the same shape as Silesia City."
Sándor Demján stresses that TriGránit\'s interest lies in Szczecin, Kraków, Gdańsk and Lublin. In the latter location, the Hungarian company wants to develop a 2.5-ha plot  in the very centre of the city, near the castle and charming Old Town. A city bus station occupies the property at present and will have to be moved should this project come to fruition. Another barrier which will have to be overcome is the subterranean Czachówka river, which makes the construction of an underground car park impossible.
Though TriGránit does not yet hold ownership rights to this bus-station site, it has already drafted a plan for the whole complex, the purpose being to prove to the powers-that-be that the developer is treating the matter very seriously. Globe Trade Centre once also had plans for the same plot, while ECE Projektmanagement of Germany was interested a few years ago.

Three Tricity possibilities
The Targ Sienny (Hay Market) and Targ Rakowy (Shellfish Market) property in the Tricity are currently arousing TriGránit\'s interest. A site next to Gdańsk\'s main railway station is also in the crosshairs of ING Real Estate, the Dutch developer, a fact confirmed by company official Agnieszka Podbielska. This Dutch group intends to develop several shopping and entertainment projects there (around 68,000 sqm), including office (23,000 sqm) as well as residential and hotel buildings (26,000 sqm). Gdańsk\'s city authorities may feel somewhat frustrated with ING Real Estate\'s foot-dragging, since the company has been considering the venture since 2000.
TriGránit is also seriously thinking about a project in Gdynia, with land also belonging to the city\'s railway station too being of no small attraction. Waldemar Grzyb, director of the State Railway\'s Office of Railway Stations admits: "We have, indeed, been talking with TriGránit officials about an offer we have prepared. They were clearly interested not only in the Gdynia railway station but also those in Poznań and several other cities."
We have also learned that the Hungarian developer has been casting a lascivious eye on yet another location in the south of Gdynia - a section of land popularly termed the "intertrack", a 100-ha empty, though media-equipped, plot on the border between the city centre and the port.

Fund-financed homes
The Dębowe Tarasy (Oak Terraces) housing estate in Katowice at the Silesia City shopping centre is the TriGránit project with the greatest potential for success. The design has already been drafted and the developer intends to submit a building licence application in the imminent future. TriGránit officials expect construction to commence in the early summer of this year. The first stage will comprise around 200 apartments out of a final total of around 1,000. The project will be carried out in partnership with the Austrian fund Immobilien Anlagen, which earlier became the owner of Silesia Center.

Mokotów offices struck off the list
Dębowe Tarasy will surely see the light of day, but the opposite is true of TriGranit\'s joint venture with PKO Inwestycje. The two companies signed a letter of intent to establish a joint venture company, in which the Polish partner\'s contribution was to be the plot on ul. Żwirki i Wigury in Warsaw, behind the Marina Mokotów estate which PKO is developing together with Dom Development. The plans were for a business park composed of five to six buildings with a total area of 80,000 sqm. The project would have got off the ground last year, if PKO hadn\'t pulled out. The explanation given by Wojciech Ciurzynski, PKO Inwestycje\'s vice-president, was that: "We came to the conclusion that the office market in this part of Warsaw is competitive to the extent that to erect further buildings of this type would be unjustified. Instead, we intend to go into housing projects."

Looking to the future
TriGránit\'s first project in Poland was a commercial success and was also acclaimed by specialists, who gave it the 2005 Quality Award for best shopping development in Central and East Europe. We shall be closely following the steps which this company will be taking along the way to realizing their ambitious plans.
Sándor Demján is looking to the future: "There are two countries we recognise as the most attractive: Poland and Romania. I believe that we shall all be enjoying a higher living standard 20 years from now than in Western Europe, which means much will have to be built here, projects with a grand flourish to meet the expectations of an increasingly prosperous people."

Ewa Andrzejewska