JWK's third Alfa

Gdańsk-based developer, Invest JWK Management, has bought an old factory on ul. Świętojańska in Białystok with plans to develop a new Galeria Alfa Centrum shopping mall. The developer has been granted a building permit and wants to start demolishing parts of the Biruna factory buildings and launch construction work in late February. The shopping center is scheduled for completion in September 2008. The value of the whole investment is estimated at EUR 70 (zł.277) million.

"We have decided to construct an Alfa center in Białystok because it is a complete desert in terms of such retail projects. The city is the biggest town in northeastern Poland and the administrative, scientific and cultural center of the region. Currently, there is only an Auchan supermarket and a Makro Cash and Carry. Only three new complexes, including ours, have been granted building permits," says Andrzej Radecki, president of Invest JWK Management.

The investor will preserve the character of the 19th-century complex, including the Becker Palace and stables, and wants to maintain elements of the old factory in the new development.

Designed by Maciej Kuryłowicz, the new shopping center, constructed on a 32,000-sqm plot, will have retail space of some 35,000 sqm. It will host between 140 and 150 shops, a seven-screen cinema and over 700 parking spaces.

There are 99,000 prospective shoppers living within ten minutes of the complex and an additional 354,000 in the up-to-an-hour zone. The mall should also benefit from its proximity to Poland's eastern border.