GTC prepares to invest zł.700 million

The Globe Trade Centre (GTC), one of the biggest property developers, is speeding up its investments. This does not come as a surprise, as GTC recently collected zł.345 million from its IPO. "We want to double our spaces to let by the end of 2006. Over a half will be in Poland," said supervisory board member Mariusz Kozłowski. Currently the group manages over 180,000 square meters of office and retail space. Considering that the average cost of building a square meter of such a property is $1,000-1,200, the overall cost of GTC's investments will surpass zł.700 million, excluding the price of land. This year the company will start to build two office blocks near Warsaw's Galeria Mokotów, one of which is already wholly rented. GTC plans to invest outside the capital in towns of over 300,000 inhabitants, but they are unwilling to reveal exactly where. They also want to invest abroad, in particular Hungary and the Czech Republic. (Puls Biznesu, p. 5) D.W.