New mall for Bytom's center

The Danish developer behind Forum Gliwice, Braaten+Pedersen, has obtained a building permit for a shopping and entertainment complex located on pl. Kościuszki in Bytom's city center. The company plans to choose a general contractor in the fall and the project is scheduled to open in 2009. The value of the whole investment, which will eventually provide employment for 850 people, is estimated between zł.265 and 303 million.

Braaten+Pedersen plus Partners won the tender for the development of pl. Kościuszki in May 2006 and the developer bought a 10,000-sqm plot for zł.15 million. The developer plans a complex with rentable space of between 25,000 and 30,000 sqm.

"On pl. Kościuszki we will construct a mall that will not only provide facilities for shopping and entertainment but also culture and business," says Bożena Fedas-Fràczek, development director at Braaten+Pedersen plus Partners.

Bytom, a city in the Silesia voivodship, is inhabited by 200,000 people, and is in the center of an agglomeration of nearly three million people. Over 600,000 prospective customers live within a 10-minute drive of the proposed development.

The developer is planning to divide the mall with walkways which will allow the preservation of existing pedestrian routes. The central part of the complex will be characterized by a courtyard.

The concept of the multifunctional center on pl. Kościuszki involved close cooperation with cultural institutions. The developer has already signed letters of intent to collaborate with the Silesian Opera, the Silesian Dance Theater and the Bytom Cultural Center. The complex will include a venue in which cultural events can be organized.