What ever happened to?

Gdańsk, famous in Poland for its beautiful old town and river front, and elsewhere for the bravery of Lech Wałęsa and the protesters from the shipyards. Today the shipyard area has declined in importance and in appearance. And so the Gdańsk Young City project was born. Synergia 99 the holder of 73 ha of land sought to revitalize the area and solicited proposals from developers. However, two years later the project is still on the drawing boards. Peter Wisłocki of Aukett Polska, a bureau of architects in Warsaw, was commissioned by TK Development to design retail and office facilities for their bid to develop the largest parcel of land on the site. He told us "There have been some delays in the local authority's approval process. However we have been told that the urban master plan will be formally ratified around September of this year, which will allow Synergia 99 to proceed with their studies into the local road and transport infrastructure requirements."

No walk in the park

We wrote in February 2002 about Modena Park in Poznań which was a scheme for offices and residential buildings to be built on a site of a disused factory belonging to the clothes manufacturer Modena. The developer which had acquired the land was Sotofte Polska, a branch of the Danish firm Sotoftegaard. It subsequently went out of business, and the land was returned to Modena. Wrocław's Wall Street project is now on its way. London can rest easy though. The region of Śląsk is not trying to steal its crown of the top European financial centre. ARC2, the architects and developers named Wrocław's project after the pre-war German street "Wal Strasse". Ryszard Machoń the firm's project manager told us that construction would start in July. Unfortunately for the city the Dominikańska mixed development project, which was announced in the first half of 2002 and was going to offer 44,600 sqm of space, will not see the light of day. Anders Westling, legal council for the Swedish developer NCC, told Eurobuild, "The old building that was on the site has been demolished, however no other progress has been made. NCC intends to sell land and the accompanying project." After two years, Szczecińskie Centrum Finansowe, a joint venture between the Szczecin city authority and the Von Der Heyden Group is still in limbo. 50,000 sqm of mixed-use property was to be built in Plac Solidarności over two phases. Construction work would have started in 2004 and be completed in 2005. However, when contacted, the developer informed us that the parties are still in contact though no definitive agreements have been reached.

Red tape

In January 2002 we wrote about a SAP Projekt office building, which was to rise up on Aleja Niepodległości in Warsaw. This project has now been shelved. Mr Krzysztof Grzesik the managing director of SAP Property (SAP Projekt Group) informed us that a commercial decision had been made to build apartments in its place, though this now means that fresh approval for use of the land is being sought. He hoped that the go-ahead from the authorities would come through in the next few weeks. In the summer of 2002 Skanska Polska expressed an interest in collaborating with the Warsaw city authorities to develop offices on public land on the corner of ul. Towarowa and ul. Prosta. A joint-stock company would have been formed, with the city's investment being in the form of the available land. Jarosław Gorzko, the manager for sales and marketing at Skanska told Eurobuild, "We were in negotiations with the city on forming a venture, however an agreement couldn't be reached. We now have no further plans for the site." Also for ul. Towarowa (plot nr. 69) was the 'Britannia Center' complex to be developed by a subsidiary of Mostostal Warszawa. The plan had involved fully renovating a 12,000 sqm office block as well as constructing a second which would have 20 pct more space. Agnieszka Kuźma-Filipek from Mostostal's press office said that the firm no longer has plans to proceed and the Towarowa Invest entity that had been specially set up for the project is to sell the land along with the plans.

Austrian prudence

From Austria, Leopold Deufl the head of project development at Immoconsult Leasinggesellschaft MBH told us that it wasn't considered to be the right moment to start the 24 story, glass wedge-like office building on the corner of ul. Bonifraterska and ul. Andersa. "We decided that we don't want to build 27,000 sqm on a mainly speculative basis. We intend to wait for preleases of approximately 25 pct of the rentable area before beginning." The EUR 70 mln complex, which was designed by Kancelaria Inwestycyjna Property Project, was first mooted two years ago. 42 ha of land on the right bank of the Vistula river, of which 28 ha can be developed still remains in Elektrim's real estate portfolio. The Port Praski site in Warsaw has still not been sold though Neinver Poland, a subsidiary of a Spanish group, and developer of the factory outlet centre in Ursus (suburb of Warsaw), was rumoured to be an interested party. Company spokesman Barbara Topolska played this down when speaking to Eurobuild. "We are aware of the site but are also looking at many others in Warsaw and elsewhere in the country on which we could develop new factory outlets, shopping centres, warehouses or even offices." Elektrim's, asking price for the land is thought to be PLN100 mln. The changing skyline of Poland is Eurobuild's business and that of its readers, though a situation of no-change can be news too. As always we will continue to keep you informed of all developments in the real estate sector whatever they may be.