Galeria Askana opens

Irish-based real-estate developer Caelum Development (CD) last week officially opened Galeria Askana, the first shopping mall in Gorzów Wilekopolski. Aside from large C&A, Reserved, New Yorker, CCC and House stores, the shopping mall hosts the first Sphinx restaurant in Gorzów Wielkopolski, a five-screen multiplex and a Bomi grocery store.

In 2005, Austrian developer Raiffeisen Evolution Project Development sold its rights to the property, industrial buildings, and all the legal and execution permits to demolish, revitalize or construct new buildings on the site. Upon the completion of the construction work, which lasted one-and-a-half years, CD delivered a retail center occupying 55,000 sqm with 18,000 sqm of leasable space. Galeria Askana hosts over 100 stores and service venues. 

"Two months before the opening, Galeria Askana was 100-percent leased. The success we achieved here has convinced us to construct another shopping mall in Gorzów Wielkopolski," said Mirosław Cechowski, CD's marketing manager. The developer has already purchased a plot in the city and hopes to complete the second shopping center by 2010. The new shopping mall will occupy 35,700 sqm with 28,100 sqm of retail space.

CD already has a diverse portfolio. The firm owns the Wratislavia Center, a hotel, retail and office center in Wrocław, the Wilcza House office building in Warsaw and Galeria Wisła, a shopping mall under construction in Płock.