Developers let project lay, lodz gets first modern business park
Early this summer Taylor entered into heated battle with a Katowice housing cooperative, which protested Taylor's development of an upscale housing development on the outskirts of Katowice.
It looks like the cooperative got the upper hand. Taylor said the entire project is now on hold, but he isn't stewing over the $175,000 in spilled milk. At least not visibly.
"We knew we were treading in an area where nobody'd been," he said. But that doesn't mean Taylor's giving up on development in the coal belt.
"The city, through the president's office, has asked us to stick around," he said. But, he added, they aren't exactly extending helpful hands.
"I'm still convinced of Katowice," he said. "But the conditions of purchasing are more difficult than Krakow."
While the Katowice project got bogged down in protests, Davies formed a joint venture with Sunley Polska in August, with Davies as developer and Sunley as builder, Taylor said. The new venture, Sunley Davies, is now pursuing development of a 135-apartment complex of five buildings in Krakow's Kurdanow district, "the bedroom of Krakow," four kilometers from downtown, Taylor said.
This will be Taylor's second residential project in Krakow. The first site overlooked the Wisla River and featured upscale flats, running about 100 square meters and carrying a price tag of $1,750 per square meter.
Not so in Kurdanow, said Taylor. These apartments will target young professionals. The price tag for the 50-60-square-meter flats, without fittings, will run $850 or about $45,000. Taylor said he planned to launch an outdoor billboard campaign in late October to tease the market, then pursue an all-out ad campaign next month.
Taylor said he's hooked up with the Polish-American Mortgage Bank, which will offer financing rates running 18-19%. The idea is to get a couple of blocks sold before the current tax break on home construction elapses at the end of this year, Taylor said. Construction could begin as early as next spring.
Davies Polska is also pursuing construction of an 11,000-square-meter office building in Nawojki near the Continental Hotel, on the outskirts of Krakow, near the A-4 auto route connecting with Katowice.
Taylor is currently awaiting the nod from city planners for the $25 million, class-A office project, he said.
• • •
KRAKOW - Rapid Design Service (RDS) is following on the heels of its major client Delphi Automotive Services, which this month finalized investment plans. (See related story, page S1.) RDS is currently looking at sites in Krakow and plans to open its own technical office here early next year, said Andrzej Gruszczynski, general manager for RDS in Poland.
RDS, which sells design and laboratory testing support for the auto sector in Poland, set up its first site in Bielsko-Biala in 1996 at Delphi's request, Gruszczynski said. At the same time, RDS set up its European headquarters in Germany in an overall move to serve its main clients Delphi and General Motors, he said.
In Bielsko-Biala, the start up mainly involved working with a local firm, he said. Last year, however, RDS started its own technical office in Tychy to serve Delphi's steering components plant there and to tap into the region's expanding client base which includes Lear Corp., Isuzu, VAB, among others, Gruszczynski said.
The Tychy operation is set for expansion next year, he said.
So far, RDS has invested about $2 million to begin operations, said Gruszczynski, who would not forecast RDS' longer-term investment package.
"Our target is to be well established in Poland," he said. The U.S.-based parent company will fund whatever it takes to achieve that goal, he said. In addition to its own technical offices in Krakow and Tychy, RDS plans to outsource engineering work to local firms and institutions in Krakow and the Katowice area, he said.
Although the auto industry is RDS' bread-and-butter sector, Gruszczynski said his firm also is looking to diversify, namely into the aircraft and power sectors here.
"We want to transfer our knowledge from the States," he said. General Electric is a major U.S. client, he added.
• • •
lODZ - Work has begun on what will be the first modern business park in Poland's second-largest city. Local officials view the project as an important step in creating jobs in a city plagued with high-levels of unemployment.
The zl. 100 million ($28 million) Diamond Business Park-lodz will comprise 51,000 square meters of warehouse and manufacturing space, according to Miroslaw Szydelski, investment director at AIG/Lincoln, the project's developer.
The business park is intended to promote investment in light production and distribution services, Szydelski said. Firms taking up space in the park will be eligible for real-estate tax breaks depending on the number of their employees, he said.
The business park is located on ulica Manewrowa in the Widzew district. Although the site is six kilometers southeast of the city center, the location was chosen in part because of its proximity to the future intersection of the A1 and A2 highways, affording excellent transportation links, city officials said.
AIG/Lincoln broke ground Sept. 22 on the project's first phase, a 20,000-square-meter warehouse/light manufacturing building, scheduled to be completed early next year. Construction on two remaining buildings is scheduled to begin this fall, Szydelski said. Black and Veatch was chosen as general contractor for the project, Szydelski said. The total project will run half the size of the 100,000-square-meter Diamond Business Park-Warsaw that AIG/Lincoln completed earlier this year in the west Warsaw suburb Janki, he said.
The $28 million investment in the lodz business park ranks in the top-20 foreign investments to date in the city and officials envision 2,000 new jobs arising from the project, city officials said.
"These new jobs are very important for lodz citizens," said Dominik Michalski of lodz's Department of Property Management. "We hope this investment will attract more capital from other cities as well as from abroad."
- Greg Keller contributed to this column
Greg Keller, , contributed to this story.
It looks like the cooperative got the upper hand. Taylor said the entire project is now on hold, but he isn't stewing over the $175,000 in spilled milk. At least not visibly.
"We knew we were treading in an area where nobody'd been," he said. But that doesn't mean Taylor's giving up on development in the coal belt.
"The city, through the president's office, has asked us to stick around," he said. But, he added, they aren't exactly extending helpful hands.
"I'm still convinced of Katowice," he said. "But the conditions of purchasing are more difficult than Krakow."
While the Katowice project got bogged down in protests, Davies formed a joint venture with Sunley Polska in August, with Davies as developer and Sunley as builder, Taylor said. The new venture, Sunley Davies, is now pursuing development of a 135-apartment complex of five buildings in Krakow's Kurdanow district, "the bedroom of Krakow," four kilometers from downtown, Taylor said.
This will be Taylor's second residential project in Krakow. The first site overlooked the Wisla River and featured upscale flats, running about 100 square meters and carrying a price tag of $1,750 per square meter.
Not so in Kurdanow, said Taylor. These apartments will target young professionals. The price tag for the 50-60-square-meter flats, without fittings, will run $850 or about $45,000. Taylor said he planned to launch an outdoor billboard campaign in late October to tease the market, then pursue an all-out ad campaign next month.
Taylor said he's hooked up with the Polish-American Mortgage Bank, which will offer financing rates running 18-19%. The idea is to get a couple of blocks sold before the current tax break on home construction elapses at the end of this year, Taylor said. Construction could begin as early as next spring.
Davies Polska is also pursuing construction of an 11,000-square-meter office building in Nawojki near the Continental Hotel, on the outskirts of Krakow, near the A-4 auto route connecting with Katowice.
Taylor is currently awaiting the nod from city planners for the $25 million, class-A office project, he said.
• • •
KRAKOW - Rapid Design Service (RDS) is following on the heels of its major client Delphi Automotive Services, which this month finalized investment plans. (See related story, page S1.) RDS is currently looking at sites in Krakow and plans to open its own technical office here early next year, said Andrzej Gruszczynski, general manager for RDS in Poland.
RDS, which sells design and laboratory testing support for the auto sector in Poland, set up its first site in Bielsko-Biala in 1996 at Delphi's request, Gruszczynski said. At the same time, RDS set up its European headquarters in Germany in an overall move to serve its main clients Delphi and General Motors, he said.
In Bielsko-Biala, the start up mainly involved working with a local firm, he said. Last year, however, RDS started its own technical office in Tychy to serve Delphi's steering components plant there and to tap into the region's expanding client base which includes Lear Corp., Isuzu, VAB, among others, Gruszczynski said.
The Tychy operation is set for expansion next year, he said.
So far, RDS has invested about $2 million to begin operations, said Gruszczynski, who would not forecast RDS' longer-term investment package.
"Our target is to be well established in Poland," he said. The U.S.-based parent company will fund whatever it takes to achieve that goal, he said. In addition to its own technical offices in Krakow and Tychy, RDS plans to outsource engineering work to local firms and institutions in Krakow and the Katowice area, he said.
Although the auto industry is RDS' bread-and-butter sector, Gruszczynski said his firm also is looking to diversify, namely into the aircraft and power sectors here.
"We want to transfer our knowledge from the States," he said. General Electric is a major U.S. client, he added.
• • •
lODZ - Work has begun on what will be the first modern business park in Poland's second-largest city. Local officials view the project as an important step in creating jobs in a city plagued with high-levels of unemployment.
The zl. 100 million ($28 million) Diamond Business Park-lodz will comprise 51,000 square meters of warehouse and manufacturing space, according to Miroslaw Szydelski, investment director at AIG/Lincoln, the project's developer.
The business park is intended to promote investment in light production and distribution services, Szydelski said. Firms taking up space in the park will be eligible for real-estate tax breaks depending on the number of their employees, he said.
The business park is located on ulica Manewrowa in the Widzew district. Although the site is six kilometers southeast of the city center, the location was chosen in part because of its proximity to the future intersection of the A1 and A2 highways, affording excellent transportation links, city officials said.
AIG/Lincoln broke ground Sept. 22 on the project's first phase, a 20,000-square-meter warehouse/light manufacturing building, scheduled to be completed early next year. Construction on two remaining buildings is scheduled to begin this fall, Szydelski said. Black and Veatch was chosen as general contractor for the project, Szydelski said. The total project will run half the size of the 100,000-square-meter Diamond Business Park-Warsaw that AIG/Lincoln completed earlier this year in the west Warsaw suburb Janki, he said.
The $28 million investment in the lodz business park ranks in the top-20 foreign investments to date in the city and officials envision 2,000 new jobs arising from the project, city officials said.
"These new jobs are very important for lodz citizens," said Dominik Michalski of lodz's Department of Property Management. "We hope this investment will attract more capital from other cities as well as from abroad."
- Greg Keller contributed to this column
Greg Keller, , contributed to this story.
