Marriage of convenience

There have been only a few examples so far of marriages between hotels and shopping centres, mostly in the United States, where building mixed-use complexes is commonplace. Already a few such projects have been developed in Poland, but these are still only isolated cases. However, such a relationship could generate a lot of profits, provided it is well thought-out and the partners are a good match. "Retail developers should think about hotels because they add to the strength of a project. They are the sort of tenants that do not rotate because they sign long-term leases, for example for 20-25 years, and guarantee an around the clock ?life' for the facility. They often strengthen a shopping centre with their brands, too," says Alex Kloszewski, head of the hotel and leisure project department at Colliers International. There are only a few retail projects in Poland that have so far exploited the opportunity of combining with a hotel:Galeria Lim (Lim Joint Venture) with Marriott (Marriott