City Center shuts up shop for massive residential tower

Orco Property Group, a fund investing in the real-estate market in Central and Eastern Europe, bought the 16-year-old retail center in the heart of Warsaw for EUR 9.75 (zł.41.5) million. The company intends to pull down the shopping center and build the highest (160-200 meters) residential building in the capital in its place.

The City Center is a symbol of a bygone era. Pewex started construction on the five-storey building in 1989. When it opened in 1991, it was one of the only places where ordinary Varsovians could buy brand new products from abroad. Now, with the cost of land rocketing, it is more profitable to demolish the shopping center and develop the real estate into a block of flats.

Today, City Center is almost empty with customers preferring the more up-market modern retail destinations with ancillary entertainment services, such as Arkadia, to the faded glory of City Center.

Besides, the building is disappearing into the shadows of the 16-storey Warsaw Tower, the 45-storey InterContinental and the rising leviathan of Złote Tarasy. "There is still space for skyscrapers to the west of ul. Emilii Plater," says Warsaw's Chief Architect, Michał Borowski, "especially for residential ones. But 200 meters is a little too high. The building will be higher than all the others nearby, except for the Palace of Science and Culture."