Not so faulty towers

A few months ago it seemed that a hotel boom was just around the corner, but investors have now abandoned hope in the knowledge that the market has cooled down. On the other hand, such a large country shouldn’t be afraid, since crises do come to an end

A large number of specialists met at Warsaw’s InterContinental Hotel on the afternoon of June 3rd, and the new half-day format proved to be a success.

Jean-François Laporte, associate director of CB Richard Ellis Hotels, Central and Eastern Europe, was the first to take the floor. The dilemma he faced was whether to reveal the secrets of successful specialist investment. In his opening remarks he made it quite clear that it is not exactly good business to give away secrets, but he later took the sting out of his remarks by stating that market values across the entire region of Central and Eastern Europe have fallen by 30-50 pct and it will take another 5 years for prices to stabilize.

The speakers for the first panel, ‘Luxury vs Modesty’, were Alex Kloszewski, chairman of Warsaw Destination Alliance and partner and head of the hotel investment at Colliers International Polska, Christian Fojlt, CEO of Warimpex AG, Michał Kuś, director of Aedas Architects, Guy Lanfray, president of Horwath HTL, and Marek Dąbrowski, managing director of Hotel Atrium and vice-president of the Chamber of Commerce of the Polish Hotel Industry. Alex Kloszewski stressed that only a year ago the hotel industry was being seen through rose-tinted spectacles, but the situation today is totally different. Christian Fojlt was more optimistic, insisting that there is a light at the end of the tunnel – and not from an approaching train. Warimpex is convinced that the slump has peaked and is expecting a growth in revenue. The major headache which the hotel industry is suffering from (along with the other real estate sectors) is how to finance new developments. Marek Dąbrowski believes that the issue will be resolved within two to three years, but in a manner that may not be to everyone’s liking. Guy Lanfray continued in an optimistic tone by reminding everyone that the number of hotels in Poland will have to increase because the hotel beds per person factor in Poland is only a tenth of that in Western Europe.

The next panel tackled a different set of problems. Agata Jurek-Zbrojska, legal consultant at Garrigues, Paweł Orłowski, deputy mayor of Sopot, Andrzej Moszczyński, board president of Condohotels Group, and Krzysztof Czerkas, board member of BRE Bank Hipoteczny, began the debate with a definition of what ‘condo hotels’ really are. Paweł Orłowski expressed great interest in this format, seeing it as a very attractive option for investment in Sopot. As in the previous discussion, the debate rapidly moved towards financial matters. Financier Krzysztof Czerkas was convinced that two schools of banking can be distinguished today. The first is rejecting all requests for loans out of hand, while the other is postponing decision-taking for as long as it possibly can.

Hale and – perhaps – still hearty? Such was the general opinion of the next group of speakers: Tomasz Jańczak, joint owner and development manager of Concept Media, Błażej Kucharski of the Gdańsk Entrepreneur Service Centre (run by the city council), Dr Lech Piotrowski, independent hotels and wellness consultant, and Michał Kuś, director of Adeas Architects. Lech Piotrowski stressed that the investment time for old buildings is invariably longer, with such projects always having surprises in store during the construction phase, while cooperation between the conservator of historic buildings and investor is not always easy. In Błażej Kucharski’s view, such projects are bound to occur quite frequently in cities such as Gdańsk. Historic buildings can be converted into hotels and also become excellent tourist attractions. Michał Kuś, however, felt there were more interesting projects awaiting designers than revitalization schemes.

One example could be ‘designer hotels’, which were reviewed  by the next panel: Zuzanna Wiak of Eurobuild, Grzegorz Czaus, a partner of the Ozone Architectural Studio, Janet Fitzner, general manager of the Radisson BLU Centrum hotel and director for Poland of the Rezidor Hotel Group, and Maria Saloni-Sadowska, associate of APA Kuryłowicz & Associates. The main questions raised were: what are designer hotels and do any actually exist in Poland? Maria Saloni-Sadowski stated firmly that there are no such hotels in Poland, but developments are clearly in the offing and, apparently, are taking their first hesitant steps. During the presentation by Grzegorz Czaus, much of which was devoted to The Granary hotel project in Wrocław, the conference was offered proof that stylish hotels are already being developed in Poland. There was still no talk, this year, of a Polish 100-percent designer hotel, but this might, hopefully, have changed when the next Eurobuild conference on the hotel industry comes around. (ZW)