POLAND Atrium Poland has set to work with its plans to redevelop its key shopping centres in Poland and work is already in progress on all three of its Warsaw malls: Atrium Reduta, Atrium Targówek and Atrium Promenada. As a result, a triple ‘grand opening’ is expected in a year’s time. Atrium’s current portfolio in Poland consists of 21 centres with an average size of 25,000 sqm. However, the company is currently reviewing its strategy and assets and intends to start selling off its smaller centres and reinvesting the funds acquired in its larger malls.
Atrium’s Polish portfolio is to eventually include fewer than ten shopping centres but their average size will grow to 50,000 sqm. “Our shopping centres in the capital currently make up one third of the value of our Polish portfolio but in future their value is to exceed 50 pct,” stated Scott Dwyer, the CEO of Atrium Poland Real Estate Management. “The Polish capital has an extremely favourable demographic structure and a lot of potential for long-term growth. It is one of few cities in Europe that might continue developing for the next twenty years,” he adds.
The work to extend the Atrium Reduta centre by 5,800 sqm was begun in August this year and a repositioning of the centre is also planned. The layout, interior design and the tenant mix are to change to fit in better with big city life. The construction work is being carried out in partnership with Carrefour, the co-owner of the centre. “Well-informed consumers, who make up the vast majority of Atrium Reduta’s customers, expect a modern centre to be something more than an interesting range of stores. We want Reduta to also be a place to spend your free time, which we are planning achieve through the extension of our entertainment and recreational services, creating a new food court with a modern design as well as creating a unique atmosphere where you can meet friends and relax,” explains Jarosław Szerfenberg, the head of development Atrium Poland. The current extension project will add almost 2,700 sqm to the centre, which is to be occupied by one of Atrium’s strategic tenants – a six-screen Cinema3D multi-plex, which will be the first cinema of the chain to open in Warsaw. It will be equipped with the latest technology including digital projectors with 4K picture quality and the DepthQ 3D system for three dimensional screenings. In the first stage of the modernisation a new fitness club is also to open over an area of 1,700 sqm. Changes to the tenant mix will focus on women’s and men’s fashion and the work is to be completed in Q4 2018. The general contractor for this stage of the project, which includes the cinema and fitness centre, is CFE Polska.
Growing tenants, expanding centres
Atrium Targówek is also to reopen at around the same time following its extension and the modernisation of its interior. Work began in October 2017 with an extension of 8,600 sqm. “Many of our key fashion tenants are demanding the extension of the centre because their current units in Atrium Targówek have become too small for them,” says Scott Dwyer. “For these tenants we’re going to prepare much larger stores in the centre’s new section, where they will be able to open up flagship stores that fit their latest marketing strategies. The existing part of the centre is also to be modernised with an extension of the food court. As a result Atrium Targówek will have an area of 60,000 sqm and there will still be possibilities for further extension. The first stage of the modernisation of the Targówek centre has been completed with a new car park developed on the third floor.
However, it is the extension of Atrium Promenada which is being developed with the greatest verve. Work has been in progress since 2015 and is being carried out in a number of stages. The plan is to double the area of the centre to 90,000 sqm by 2020, which should make it one of the largest retail centres in the city. With the completion of the first stage of the project in October 2016, the centre gained a leasable area of 7,600 sqm with new stores including Mac, Tous, Etam and Rossmann. “The stage we’re currently working on and which is to be completed in October 2018 is the renovation and redevelopment of the the main shopping arcade in the centre, which is to result in an additional 13,000 sqm gla,” says Scott Dwyer. By the autumn of next year the main passageway will have been transformed into a ‘Fountain Avenue’ and there will also be an additional ‘Market Avenue’ and a food court.
The company is not neglecting its centres outside of Warsaw: extension work on Atrium Biała in Białystok is to start soon and Atrium Copernicus in Toruń is also waiting in the queue. The total volume of the company’s investments in Poland will come to around EUR 300 mln and the total leasable area of its centres is set to grow by around 70,000 sqm.
