Pre-summer fever

Because summer idleness will soon enter the retail market, May and June offer the last opportunity to finalize tenancy agreements and settle construction or sale procedures. Agents, developers and construction workers will all go on well-deserved holidays, once they've signed the necessary documents

If one goes by what's written in the press, including interviews with agents and developers, you'll soon discover that retailers do actually have some faith in the future of the Polish market. Both larger and smaller chains are convinced that the leaner times are drawing to an end and Polish people are about to start shopping again. Hennes & Mauritz exemplify this attitude. After opening a branch in Warsaw's Wola Park, they are planning to open more shops, on ul. Marszałkowska and Al. Jerozolimskie (the Reduta retail centre) in Warsaw, and in Centrum Biznesu Handlu i Sztuki Stary Browar in Poznań. Eurobuild took a look at what's happening on the construction sites of these important retail projects.

Final foundations at Arkadia
The final foundations are currently being laid at the Arkadia retail and leisure centre (275,000 sqm of total space). Construction is currently being carried out on the underground car park as well as on the ground floor.
The investor, the French BEG group, has informed us that 68 per cent of the building has been leased and the new tenants are: Simple, Triumph, Pierre Cardin and Kodak Express. The centre should open officially in Autumn this year.

On his knees
The head of Blue City on Al. Jerozolimskie, Yoram Reshef, has divulged that 70 lease agreements, amounting to 30 per cent of the building's total space, have been signed at his centre. Tenants are to include the Piotr and Pawel delicatessen with 4,000 sqm, Vileroy & Boch, Mexx, Samsonite, Adidas, Nike, Majkowski, Schiesser, Big Star Rossman and Vistula. We mustn't forget about the leisure centre operator either, MagiCorp with 5,500 sqm, which was one of the first companies to appear on the list of tenants. Some of Yoram Reshef's favourite retailers however won't be moving under his roof: "I would gladly kneel before such firms as GAP, Zara, Victoria's Secret or H&M," says Reshef. "The first are not as yet planning to expand to Poland and H&M are going to Reduta. But if work doesn't start soon at our neighbours' site, we may have a chance of winning them over."
Until recently, DTZ was the only company charged with leasing Blue City, but it has joined forces with Bachurski who are now responsible for the home improvement centre. Other agencies working for the competition are in Reshef's bad books because, he says, they've been spreading disparaging rumours about Blue City. "In the past, the competition had class. Nowadays only developers behave honourably. Some agencies are extremely arrogant and big-headed, and don't seem to realize that what goes around comes around."
The total retail space will amount to 50,000 sqm and the centre will open in Spring next year.

Ridgepole decorated
Last month, the developer Fortis, general contractor Porr, project manager EC Harris, leasing agent Cushman & Wakefield H&B, and architects Studio ADS celebrated the end of construction on the retail and office section of Centrum Biznesu Handlu i Sztuki Stary Browar, by decorating the ridgepole, a sign that the project is drawing to a close. The two buildings, consisting of 47,000 sqm (including 19,000 sqm of retail space) will begin welcoming customers in November this year.
"We've signed up tenants for 70 per cent of the retail space," says Dominika Kulczyk-Lubomirska who is representing Fortis. "Tenants will include Zara, Galeria Centrum, Douglas, Estee Lauder, Solar, Reserved, Scotch & Soda and Promod."
The less commercial section of the centre, dedicated to art and culture, will be launched in the middle of 2004. A museum is part of these plans.

Little change down South
Surprisingly little has been mentioned recently about two large projects underway in southern Poland. The Nowe Miasto project in Kraków has been postponed on several occasions and few are any the wiser about the fortunes of Silesia Park in Katowice. Tishman Speyer Properties, who have been negotiating with Kraków city council for several years now, have yet to start digging. In the meantime, the German developer ECE, who are known for their retail centres in Poland, have been taken on. ECE are officially acting as the leasing agents for the retail units in Nowe Miasto and there has also been talk, for some time now, that they might be investing in some of the scheme's shares.
The situation in Katowice is just as ambiguous. As Eurobuild goes to press, Chelverton International are in the process of negotiating the sale of their shares in Silesia Park, which is as yet incomplete.