Great western railways?

POLAND Polish State Railways (PKP) has finally signed an agreement with Slovakian developer HB Reavis to rebuild Warszawa Zachodnia, Warsaw's West Station. Amidst all the fanfare, PKP somehow neglected to mention that it had originally planned to complete all the work before the Euro 2012 football championships Poland is jointly hosting with Ukraine. However, after failing to come to terms with French developer Nexity, these plans were shelved and PKP had to find a new partner. As a result any football fan who next year chooses to alight at West Station, will find the facilities in their current decidedly shabby state, but were he prepared to hang around for another few years maybe he would be astounded by the transformation.

Go west
West Station Investment, a joint venture company set up by HB Reavis and PKP, is to build a glass-roofed ticket hall by 2014, which will connect to the underground tunnel that runs under the station's platforms. The 1,250 sqm building should provide full access for the disabled as well as meeting the needs of the blind. But this is only the beginning. Seven office blocks, which should be BREEAM certified, are to be built next door. The first, which is to serve as PKP's future headquarters, is to be 12 storeys high, and is scheduled for completion in 2015, while the others, which will only have six storeys each, should be completed by 2017. The first building is to have an area of 7,343 sqm, of which 6,060 sqm will be leasable. The project, which has an estimated cost of EUR 110 mln, should eventually offer a total of 94,000 sqm with 53,500 sqm of leasable space, as well as a two-level underground car park with spaces for 1,000 vehicles (the station's passengers will have separate parking facilities). All this, which HB Reavis intends to finance through a mixture of bank loans and its own equity, is to be achieved without disrupting traffic or the operation of the adjacent bus station. As impressive as this sounds, it is worth remembering that the ink on the framework agreement is barely dry. At present PKP does not hold a stake in West Station Investment, which was set up by HB Reavis, because PKP has not yet handed over the 17,000 sqm site (representing its contribution to the project) and will not do so until the site development plan and other necessary permits have been issued. Meanwhile, HB Reavis has yet to even announce an architect for the project, although it is currently in negotiations. It is no surprise that both parties are stressing how the plans are only preliminary and that all the details could yet change. As PKP board member Paweł Olczyk stated: "Much also depends on the development of the Warsaw office market, which will determine when the investment deadlines fall as well as how large these projects are going to be."

Are you experienced?
For PKP, partnering with a private investor is a relatively novel approach, adopted to spruce up its facilities in time for the forthcoming Euro 2012 tournament. In Katowice, it has partnered up with Neinver to build a mixed-use centre that includes a train station, a bus station and business centre. Meanwhile, it has also invited TriGranit to rebuild Poznań station. The EUR 160 mln project includes a bus terminal and a shopping centre with 60,000 sqm gla. At first glance, HB Reavis would also appear to be somewhat inexperienced in such projects. West Station is only its second project in Poland, with the first being the 48,000 sqm Konstruktorska Business Center in Warsaw, which is to be completed in 2013. It has no track record in building train stations, although back home in Slovakia it has begun work on a bus station in Bratislava, to be completed in 2014, while in the Czech Republic it is also planning to build a bus station in Brno. In the opinion of Stanislav Frňka, CEO of HB Reavis Poland, it is far harder to build a working bus station from scratch than to build a train station connected via tunnels to existing platforms: "A railway station" he says, "is not so complicated compared to the bus stations that we plan to build, especially this one because it's not connected with the railway lines directly." He also explained that HB Reavis has big ambitions for the Warsaw office market, as well as for shopping centres throughout Poland. "We do not expect to achieve the position that we have in Slovakia, but we would like to get as close to it as possible."
Perhaps it is not so important that the station will not be ready in time for Euro 2012. Maybe the football fan we left sitting on the platform for two years would notice little difference because PKP is waiting until 2014, when it hopes the EU will grant it more funds, before it starts track renovations.
Alexander Hayes