Moving to action stations

This project follows last year's announcement of the details of a similar investment estimated at EUR 110 mln to rebuild Warszawa Zachodnia (Warsaw West) station together with two new office buildings in a partnership with Slovakian developer HB Reavis. Earlier collaborations had also been formed with Neinver of Spain to reconstruct Katowice's main station (and develop the 53,000 sqm Galeria Katowice shopping centre) and with Hungarian developer TriGranit to do the same for Poznań's central station, creating the Poznań City Center transport hub and shopping centre (60,000 sqm). The Warszawa Gdańska project, however, looks set to be an even more enticing prospect for developers than any of these previous redevelopments. Not only is it just on the edge of the central district of the capital, it is also situated at the confluence of major arterial and circular roads, tram and bus routes, the existing metro line, and (of course) the railway itself. In fact, it is the only transport hub in the capital that combines all these factors. The station lies within the Northern Business Area, which is developing into a location for office development (HB Reavis itself is currently developing the 95,000 sqm Gdański Business Center on a neighbouring plot on ul. Inflancka). This is one of the reasons why, unlike the Poznań and Katowice schemes, PKP SA is not expecting its eventual partner in the redevelopment to come up with a plan to combine the station with a major retail project. Instead, it envisages "a station with service and office functions". A possible office park has been mooted, but this would be the first project of that type undertaken by the company in a joint venture with a developer.

Scything through red-tape

One advantage that PKP SA has as a state-owned company is that it can be less of a problem to cut through the red tape for such significant projects than for investors in the private sector. As Szymon Konop, the director of the investment department at PKP SA explains: "Some of the paperwork has already been done, making it easier to get into discussions with developers. We would like to start talks this year and start construction in 2014/15. It's hard to say what kind of project this is going to be. It won't be like the one in Poznań, as there is already the Arkadia mall within walking distance. So it is unlikely to involve another shopping centre, so maybe instead it will be an office complex, possibly with a hotel." Indeed, the site development conditions have already been issued for the area in question, allowing for the construction of buildings of up to 16-storeys. An underground car park for 500 vehicles is also planned and as well as improvements to the local transport infrastructure green areas with landscape are to be created. According to Jarosław Bator, the managing director of the real estate department at PKP SA: "As previously, we will invite a couple of reputable companies for talks and stipulate the conditions. This will not be a tender and will not only be about the price. The property is owned by the state, so although the price is an important factor, it is not the sole criterion - we have to be able to show that if the property is sold that it is used properly. We will be punished by the public if it isn't." Among the other train station redevelopment projects that have recently got underway is one located in Sopot in the TriCity conurbation. The location is a 1.7 ha site on ul. Bohaterów Monte Cassino, the main thoroughfare in the centre of the Baltic seaside town. This time a new station with office, retail and service areas is planned, as well as a hotel, a two-level underground car park, the modernisation of the road layout in its vicinity, and the development of green areas. The investors behind the scheme, which is expected to be finished next year, are the town of Sopot with PKP SA and Bałtycka Grupa Inwestycyjna.

Remake, remodel

At the beginning of February, PKP SA also announced plans for an integrated communication hub in Bydgoszcz, with a new main station for the city. The project, which is to cost more than PLN 197 mln, will be partly financed from the EU's Operational Programme 'Infrastructure and Environment'. The middle section of the station, which was built in the early twentieth century and modified in the 1960s, is to be demolished. One side of the old building is to be restored, while a steel and glass structure is to be erected in the place of the missing section. A tender for the design and construction documentation will probably take place in May, followed by the tender for the construction contract itself, possibly in December. The building work should start in 2014 and finish a year later. PKP SA is also to open around twenty other modernised railway buildings this year in locations such as Kraków, Łęczyca and Jarocin, while it is moving forward with plans to redevelop stations in Szczecin, Gliwice and Ciechanów - also with the support of EU funds.

Nathan North