POLAND Laying the groundwork for success

You have just taken up the position of director of operations at Monting Development after spells at Hillwood and Ghelamco. What attracted you to the company? And what will your new role involve?

Jarosław Fiutowski, chief operating officer of Monting Development: At Monting Development, I saw a company with ambition that has not lost sight of quality or a sound approach to business. That was very important to me. I was also drawn by the scale of the impact one can genuinely have here on both the organisation and its projects. This isn’t a place where you are responsible for a narrow part of the process. You can track progress from setup to completion. That’s very close to the way I’ve approached real estate throughout my career – not in isolated stages, but across the full life cycle of a project.

In my new role, I’m responsible for the operational side of the business – ensuring that projects are properly prepared, well-managed and delivered in a structured, efficient and predictable way. I want to bring to Monting Development the experience I’ve built up over the years, while also helping the company to build its next stages of growth on solid foundations. To me, operations in a development business are not simply about overseeing a process. They are also about bringing teams together, creating clarity in decision-making, anticipating risk and making sure that business assumptions are reflected in the actual quality of delivery.

You have an engineering background. Hillwood operates primarily in the warehouse segment, while Ghelamco specialises in office projects – whereas Monting Development is a residential developer. Will this be a major change for you? How easy will it be to adapt to a new segment? And will your engineering background help?

To be honest, I don’t see this as stepping into a completely different world, but rather as a natural move into a different type of product. Of course, warehouses, offices and residential schemes differ in terms of function, scale and customer expectations, but the fundamentals of successful delivery remain the same. What always matters is the quality of preparation, strong process management, responsible decision-making, cost control and the ability to work effectively with people.

My engineering background has given me a very practical way of thinking. I tend to look at projects in a factual and structured way, look for solutions, simplify what is unnecessarily complex and identify risks before they become problems. At the same time, my experience across different segments has taught me that every project needs to be approached on its own terms, without ever losing delivery discipline.

The residential market is distinctive because the end-user directly interacts with the product. Customers very quickly test every decision: the layout, functionality, quality of materials, day-to-day comfort, the surroundings of the building and the way the entire scheme works. That makes it an interesting challenge, because it requires technical precision combined with greater sensitivity to detail and to people’s real needs. That combination is exactly where I see the greatest value in my experience.

Monting Development is currently developing several significant projects: in Warsaw, Chłodna 35 and the development on ul. Cynamonowa in Ursynów – and in Gdańsk, Oxygen Park. How advanced are these projects? Can you reveal any new information about them – and about any other schemes that may be in preparation?

These are three different projects, at different stages and in different parts of the market, but together they say a great deal about how Monting Development operates. What they have in common is a focus on quality, thorough preparation and an understanding of development not only in terms of the building itself, but also the experience of future residents.

Chłodna 35 is a particularly important project for us. It is a luxury residential development in one of the most distinctive locations in Warsaw. In this case, the context of the site, the quality of the architecture, the choice of materials, innovative technological solutions for residents, privacy and the way the building fits into the existing urban fabric are all essential. The project has already entered the construction phase and the groundwork is currently underway.

Our second Warsaw project is Cynamonowa 23 in Ursynów. It’s a development designed around very specific day-to-day needs – strong transport links, functional layouts, convenience and high quality in a well-established part of the city. The project is in pre-sales and apartments are receiving a lot of interest. We can see that customers are looking ever more closely not only at location and price, but also at how a project will function in practice over the years ahead.

The third project is Oxygen Park in Gdańsk, where we’ve just completed the development. It is a residential scheme comprising eight buildings and 434 apartments in total. We obtained the occupancy permit for the third and final phase five months ahead of schedule, and the entire development has been sold out. To me, that’s a very meaningful confirmation of the team’s delivery quality, strong process management and the trust customers place in the Monting Development brand.

Oxygen Park is important for another reason as well. The project has given us a strong understanding of the Gdańsk market and allowed us to build local experience. We already have an established presence there, a good understanding of the market and practical know-how in delivering projects in that location. That’s why the TriCity remains one of our key directions for further growth.

The company takes a disciplined, measured approach to growth. Today, the real estate market rewards not those who do the most, but those who know how to select projects well and deliver quality consistently. We see further development potential in both Warsaw and the TriCity. We are looking at specific plots of land, although at this stage it is still too early to disclose any details.

What matters to me after joining the company is the fact that these projects are driven by a very clear operating philosophy. It’s not about doing more, faster. It’s about doing things well, responsibly and with lasting value in mind. From my perspective, that’s a very strong starting point for further responsible growth.