Waltz on to the scene

Her political opponents call her the queen of traffic jams, while they refer to the city budget she has drafted as ‘a road engineer’s budget’. Warsaw mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz’s main belief is that traffic in the city needs to move more efficiently in order to allow the city to grow

Emil Górecki, ‘Eurobuild CEE’: Over the past few years many new ideas to develop the very centre of Warsaw – pl. Defilad – have emerged. And the subject has been revisited again over the past few weeks, with new concepts being proposed. So, when will the capital have a city centre worthy of a modern European city?

Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, Mayor
of Warsaw: We want to approve a new local development plan as soon as possible, which I expect to happen in the first half of 2009. We are discussing with architects its future shape and are considering options for how pl. Defilad could be built with Bartłomiej Biełyszew and Andrzej Skopiński. We have agreed that a Modern Art Museum will be constructed on pl. Defilad, and also possibly a market hall for small traders. The corrugated iron buildings around the square will definitely disappear. I really hope we can determine the final plan for the square’s re-development within a few weeks.

Emil Górecki: We now finally know how the National Stadium will look – the most important venue in Poland for the Euro 2012 Football Championships. The city and the National Sports Centre Company have jointly announced a competition to develop the 30-ha of land around the stadium. How is this partnership going to develop and what can the city expect once the results of the competition have been decided?

Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz: We have drafted, together with the National Sports Centre Company, the competition’s principles and procedures, and are providing part of the finance. The land is already the property of the State Treasury. The competition time schedule fits in with developing the local spatial development plan. The date of the competition is to be decided very soon, by the first half of this year. Once the National Stadium has been completed and the surrounding common land on the right-bank of the Vistula developed with office buildings, sports and shopping facilities, it will no longer constitute a wedge between North and South Praga, but rather connect the two districts.

Emil Górecki: Warsaw’s third grand project is Praga Port, a huge section of land on the right bank of the Vistula river. There has been no further talk of change and development there since the election campaign. What is currently happening with that project?

Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz: The development plan for Praga Port will be ready before the end of this year, with plans relating to the surrounding area of the Warsaw East Station and the National Stadium being submitted at the same time. Their approval will undoubtedly speed up the regeneration and growth of the area, and become an incentive for further development of the Vistula River’s right bank.

Emil Górecki: Kulczyk Holding’s Tower, 280 m in height, and the Lilium building at more than 250 m, are two examples of the kind of new developments currently being planned by Warsaw developers. Don’t you feel they will cause town planning chaos in the city?

Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz: Warsaw council’s architectural department has developed procedures that will prevent chaos from arising. Buildings under construction in general should not destroy the harmony of their surroundings or the skyline. We want the Warsaw of the future to have a full complement of skyscrapers. We are a modern and amenable city, which is why we favour the creation of a Warsaw business district stretching from ul. Emilii Plater out towards the Wola and Ochota districts. Apart from local development plans, the city is working on a document defining its tower buildings policy, which account for tall buildings being constructed along ul. Emilii Plater towards Wola. Architects are planning this so that the dominant local elements will be incorporated into the landscape and city structure.

Emil Górecki: Cushman & Wakefield, the real estate consultancy, claims that Warsaw is dropping in its ranking on the list of investor-friendly European cities. The drop is a single place from last year, but the forecasts are poor. The growth in the number of both established companies and those starting up in Warsaw is below that of Gdańsk and Poznań.

Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz: This is a trend evident in all countries to a certain extent. Regional cities, their airports and businesses are growing at a more rapid rate than in the capital. There is a substantial saturation of businesses in Warsaw, since commuting distances are greater resulting in companies moving outside the capital. The details published by Cushman & Wakefield are also worth studying, since they highlight that the major negative aspect of Warsaw is the delay in the opening of Terminal 2 at Okęcie International Airport, which is ultimately outside the city’s scope of responsibility. But the city’s standing has improved in several aspects since 2007 – particularly as regards access to office space and human resources. Moreover, the city’s weak points mentioned in the report coincide with my own election priorities. I highlighted the crucial growth of the transport and road infrastructure, and indeed the city’s most recent budget has been termed “a road engineers budget”, and that is just what it is!

Emil Górecki: Bridges are of the very greatest importance for efficient traffic flow when a city is divided by a river. Wouldn’t you agree, therefore, that the construction of two new bridges is a priority for Warsaw?

Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz: You are quite right. The Northern and Krasiński Bridges should be opened by the end of 2010, with the tendering of construction projects to be ready by late March 2008, lasting several months. Construction work might even begin before the end of the current year, should appeal procedures not drag on too long. In my experience, such time schedules often have to be revised, unfortunately; however, I do hope the delays will not be too long in this case.

Emil Górecki: Local spatial development plans exist for only 17.3 pct of the area of Warsaw, which undoubtedly inhibits further investment in the city. Is the situation likely to change in the immediate future?

Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz: We are going to substantially increase the number of personnel employed on these plans. The problem is that people with the required qualifications are hard to come by and we want to change the organization of the architecture and spatial planning department. But let me stress that several procedures to approve key plans are at their final stage; especially concerning important sections of the Mokotów and Praga districts, and the project plan for Pole Mokotowskie that has already been submitted for public inspection.

Emil Górecki: Warsaw will be host to the European Football Championships in four years’ time. It is argued that Warsaw will not be able to cope with so much – and at the same time vital – investment. Will Warsaw really be able to meet the time schedule that has been set?

Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz: The city does not have to finance construction of the National Stadium, but is modernizing the Legia and Polonia clubs’ stadiums and other training facilities. The key investments concern urban transport – the second underground railway line, new bridges and public transport. Most projects were planned a long time ago with the championships only giving us momentum and setting a time schedule. Several procedures have been streamlined due to a special Parliamentary decree concerning Euro 2012. I am entirely convinced Warsaw will finish all the preparations on time.

Emil Górecki: Warsaw council claims that the city has an investment-friendly climate. But Barc, a housing developer, has taken legal action against the city for a 500-day delay in issuing a building permit. The city authorities should be able to issue them within 30 days, shouldn’t they?

Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz: Some investors want the city authorities to meet all their expectations. But the city also must take care of its residents and architectural direction. It is a very complex matter in which we have tried to find a consensus between residents adjacent to the planned investment and the developer. You are wrong to assert that the developer has waited several hundred days for a decision to be issued during which time the council has done nothing. Documents were returned to the developer requiring further supporting evidence, while the issue was reviewed many times during council sessions.

Emil Górecki: Construction work on the first underground railway line got underway more than 20 years ago. Will it be possible to build the central section of the second line within four years, in time for 2012, especially since a tunnel will have to be dug underneath the Vistula River?

Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz: Construction work on the first line will finish in mid-2008. The technologies we use today are very modern and time effective. The construction of the second line will begin in Praga next year, with work at the same time taking place at planned underground railway stations. The central section of the second underground line must and will be operative before Euro 2012.

Emil Górecki: The renovation of the historic Krakowskie Przedmieście thoroughfare is at its final stage. What part of the city is to be revitalized next?

Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz: The next will be pl. Teatralny and pl. Bankowy, which are complex investments, since underground car parks are to be built below them. A tender for these modernization projects is to be announced within the next few months. After that, renovation work will start in the area between al. Jerozolimskie, ul. Świętokrzyska and pl. Powstańców Warszawy. And finally, pl. Trzech Krzyży, although currently still in a satisfactory state, will be redeveloped too. Ultimately, a large part of the city centre will be given a face-lift. I’d like to add that work on regenerating ul. Francuska and ul. Paryska in the Saska Kępa district, will start this November.

Emil Górecki: In Warsaw there are still many properties waiting for privatization. Will investors be able to count on such interesting opportunities such as the out-of-use bus depot on ul. Inflancka coming onto the commercial market?

Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz: I can confirm that there will be no more building plots of that size becoming available. The city made the most of the high demand for these plots a few years ago, but now I don’t think investors are looking for such spectacular opportunities, but are rather keeping their eyes open for smaller sites in good locations, and opportunities for office development. What we want to do is to sell our properties gradually; with the time schedule for the sale of sites dependent on demand and market trends, which we will adhere to so as to avoid creating excess supply of sites and lowering prices – in other words, basic economics.

Emil Górecki: You are to be a guest of this year’s MIPIM, Europe’s largest convention of the real estate investment industry. What do you plan to achieve for Warsaw in Cannes?

Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz: This will be the first time in seven years that a mayor of Warsaw will be attending this conference. I intend to promote Warsaw among world developers, investors and architects. I shall appear in a panel debate with the mayors of Budapest, Bratislava and Prague. Warsaw is a perfect place to invest capital, it is ultimately the heart of Central Europe and it requires effective promotion. These are the principal reasons for my visit to MIPIM.