Ikea looks to build massive shopping center in Targowek
Swedish retailer Ikea will begin building its second shopping center in Warsaw this summer, said Jan Pradyszczuk, investment director at Ikea Polska.
Ikea's choice of a site in Targowek, in the city's northeast, will locate the retailer between two competitors: Centrum Handlowe Targowek and Metro's M1 shopping mall. The decision adds another major vote of investor confidence in the future of the eastern bank of the Wisla river, which has lagged well behind the western half of the capital.
The shopping center will be Ikea's fourth in Poland. The firm developed centers in Warsaw's southwestern suburb of Janki, Poznan and Wroclaw. But the new development, with 150,000 square meters of retail space, will not only far surpass Ikea's previous projects in size, Pradyszczuk said, but will exceed all other shopping centers built in Poland. By comparison, Ikea's Centrum Bielany in Wroclaw, now one of the biggest shopping centers in the country, has 70,000 square meters of retail space. Ikea's Janki site has 37,300 square meters.
Last year Ikea bought a massive 54-hectare plot in Targowek from TON Agro, which manages state-owned agricultural property sales. Pradyszczuk would not disclose the amount paid for the land, although it appears to have been chosen for its strategic location on the Trasa Torunska highway. The site's proximity to the Grot-Rowecki bridge could help draw shoppers across the river from northern and northwestern Warsaw. By comparison, to develop its Janki shopping center in 1993, Ikea needed only 11 hectares.
Ikea will put a 22,000-square-meter outlet of its Ikea furniture chain in Targowek as its anchor tenant. The store will take nearly double the space used by Ikea's furniture store in the Janki center. Pradyszczuk did not identify other retailers signed to help fill the 150,000 square meters at the new site.
The multi-phase project's timetable remains undecided. In the first phase, planned for completion in 2001, Ikea intends to build the furniture store and another 5,000-7,000-square-meter store for an unnamed operator.
Ikea has wanted to build a shopping center in northeastern Warsaw since the early '90s, when it secured its first Polish location in Janki, Pradyszczuk said. The motivation was that, because of Warsaw's horrific transportation infrastructure, the Janki store's catchment area didn't include customers from northern Warsaw, much less from across the river, he said. "We ... don't have customers from the north," Pradyszczuk said. "This (Targowek) is the location we were looking for."
But putting a giant shopping center in the capital's wild east is only part of Ikea's aggressive plan to expand throughout Poland. The company has secured six other locations in cities around the country on which to construct shopping centers, said Pradyszczuk, though he refused to name the other cities.
Under-the-bridge arcade delayed
Niezalezny Most will delay the opening of its Centrum Handlowe Arkada, the two-story shopping mall taking shape underneath Warsaw's Poniatowski bridge in the Powisle district between downtown Warsaw and the Wisla river.
The co-op had intended to open the 7,000-square-meter mall last November but lack of funding has delayed that event until March, said Olgierd Kasperek, president of Niezalezny Most. "We will have a two-month delay," Kasperek said. "Some investors haven't completed payment," he said.
Niezalezny Most is a cooperative company owned by some 120 shopkeepers jointly financing development of the zl. 20 million ($4.9 million) mall for small and medium-sized retailers. According to Kasperek, some shopkeepers who didn't pay their shares were removed from the cooperative, which delayed construction.
As a cooperative of small and medium-sized retailers, the company is an interesting attempt by local businesses to resist or perhaps partake in the historic transformation of Poland's retail sector as international giants grab chunks of the market with major investments, and domestic giants modernize and consolidate the industry. Furthermore, the coop's imaginative development plan for the long-neglected space under the bridge is welcome in a part of the city that lacks retail investment.
The delay caused concern by authorities of the Srodmiescie district, from which Niezalezny Most last year leased the 6,600-square-meter site under the Poniatowski bridge that connects Aleje Jerozolimskie and Aleja Waszyngtona across the river.
"We are concerned," said Krzysztof Przygoda, spokesman for the district. The district is eager to see the project open, seeing it as an option for vendors removed last year from open-air markets in downtown Warsaw, including plac Defilad under the Palace of Culture and Science, Przygoda said.
Because of that, as well as the co-op's willingness to develop what had seemed undesirable land, the district leased the space at below market price. Niezalezny Most pays for the entire site about $1.10 per square meter a month.
Kasperek said that, beyond the opening of the 4,000-square-meter building in March, the second, 3,000-square-meter building should open by late June. At completion, Centrum Handlowe Arkady will have almost 200 retail units, of which 90% have been sold, he said. The asking price for those still for sale is zl. 3,800-zl. 4,200 per square meter, he said. For lease-only units, asking rents vary from $19-$30 per square meter monthly, depending on unit size, Kasperek said.
New management in Colliers
The Canadian real estate agency Colliers International announced changes to the management of its Central & East European operations.
Aaron Dohm and Neil Gregory-Eaves in January were appointed as co-regional directors of Colliers' Central and East Europe operations. They replace partner Howard Barnes, who led Colliers International's expansion into Central and East Europe from 1991-1999. Mr. Barnes remains a board member and adviser to the regional operations.
Neil Gregory-Eaves, who arrived in Poland this year, will work from the Warsaw office. He joins Douglas McMurray, Colliers' managing director here. From Vancouver, Canada, Gregory-Eaves has been working with Colliers for eight years.
Co-director Aaron Dohm, who has worked at Colliers in Budapest since 1997, will continue to reside in Hungary.
In brief:
Germany's retail giant Metro will open a Real hypermarket in Kielce in central Poland in February, Metro announced. Kielce's Real will be the 20th Real hypermarket that Metro has developed in Poland since February 1997, when the company put its first outlet in the northwestern port city of Szczecin.
