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ECONOMY. After the crisis, there begins again the construction of new office buildings, shops and hotels. Businesses stay in anticipation of new office space.
Good news for the residents of Kraków. The crisis collapse in commercial construction projects is slowly over. With a delay, yet office blocks in Bonarka City Center will finally be constructed. The difficult period has not stopped the construction of Quattro Business Park, the local IKEA store will be extended, and a hotel and residential complex will be erected at Dolnych Młynów Street in Kraków.
"One can notice a general return to those projects, which have either been suspended, or have earlier been only in their design stages. Still, there are no projects, which would have been prepared from the very beginning," says Mr. Marek Dunikowski, an architect from Kraków. He adds that presently Quinlan Private Golub are contemplating returning to the implementation of his design of Enterprise Park office complex in the Kraków's district of Zabłocie.
"The crisis has contributed to the reduction of demand for office space. Entrepreneurs wanted to wait for the end of uncertain times. Part of them had reduced the space leased by them, which caused that there was much more free office space available for lease in 2009. At the same time banks, which previously used to finance projects, have toughened their loan conditions," says Ms. Marta Wybrańska, Office Space Lease Director at TriGranit Development Polska.
The company is the investor of Bonarka City Center complex. The complex includes a shopping centre (already completed), and Bonarka 4 Business office complex to be constructed. In total, four office buildings will be constructed there. The first two of them, each seven-storey high, were expected to be ready in 2010, but because of the crisis their completion deadline has been shifted. They will be put into use in April next year. Total project cost has been estimated at 114 million Polish zlotys. Next two office buildings will be constructed in near future.
Another proof that the crisis is slowly passing away can be the fact that TriGranit Development Polska has managed to sign a contract with the PKO BP bank for financing the construction of the first stage of the complex. Earlier that was not possible.
"At present, we have leased 60% of available office space," mentions Mr. Tomasz Lisiecki, president of TriGranit Development Polska. Another office complex, named Quattro Business Park, is developed on the other side of Kraków at Bora-Komorowskiego Avenue. Within the framework of the project, in the third quarter of 2010, the first of four, fourteen-storey office tower blocks will be completed.
The Buma Group, which is implementing the project, informed us that the major part of office space in that building had already been leased. The company has also launched the construction of the second building, which is to be ready in 2011. The project design provides for the construction of two more buildings.
More Office Buildings
Also the local IKEA store centre will be extended. The Polish press office of the IKEA Group has told us that the crisis had not struck the company, since they sell cheap products, which are in a high demand in such times. It was also the case of the IKEA store in Kraków, visited by more and more shoppers. For that reason, the company decided to increase the store display part from 3,569 to 6,010 sq.m., the office space from 150 to 480 sq.m., and parking yards from 500 to 1,153 places.
"Indeed, in times of a crisis, these are mainly specialist stores and shops, as well as chain stores offering low prices that develop," comments Mr. Jarosław Zygmunt, an analyst from the Institute of Analysis, The Real Estate Market Monitor. He also adds: "There is no demand for another shopping malls. Everybody knows that boutique stores located in them are associated with brand products, and that means higher prices for customers. In addition, Kraków in comparison to other cities has been highly saturated with such facilities."
Something has changed in housing. Immobiliaria Camins, a Spanish homebuilding company, intends to create a hotel and residential complex in buildings of former tobacco plant at Dolnych Młynów Street. They are going to add new facilities to old, post-industrial buildings. In total, the area of almost 2 hectares, will house a hotel and residential buildings with service outlets in them. A courtyard with a garden will constitute a common area. The project valued at ca. 150 million Polish zlotys, is about to be launched in 2011.
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