French Apsys plans $100 million mixed-use retail-entertainment facility in Lodz

French group Apsys has announced plans to invest $100 million to construct a mixed-use shopping and entertainment center in downtown Lodz, covering 28 hectares and employing 3,500 people. According to Apsys CEO Maurice Bansay, the investment should begin in June or July 2001, and the facility would open in 2003. The center, whose temporary name is Nowy Swiat (New World), will consist of a Geant hypermarket, a large do-it-yourself home maintenance store, more than 20 shops with furniture and appliance goods, and a shopping mall with 150 boutiques.The entertainment facility will contain a Multiplex cinema with 16 screens, a bowling alley with 24 lanes, discotheques, and 20 restaurants offering cuisine from around the world. In addition there will be a three-star hotel, offices and banks. Apsys, which has been present in Poland since 1997, has already built Centrum Korona in Wroclaw as well as retail centers in Janki. (Rzeczpospolita, p.B4)