New Town takes shape in Kraków

The complex will be managed by ECE Projektmanagement, which bought the plot for the development from American developer Tishman Speyer Properties in 2004.

The development will be next to the main railway station and will include a four-star, six-storey hotel with 159 rooms on ul. Pawia. The company behind the project is Austrian UMB AG, which along with Warimpex AG is responsible for the construction.

The building was designed by IMB Asymetria and will be operated by Austrian firm Vienna International Hotel & Resorts, the operator of the Chopin Hotel in Kraków.

"The hotel will surely be one of the most beautiful, if not the most beautiful hotel in Kraków," says Jarosław Malik, from UMB AG. The company plans to complete the project by May 2007.

However, this is not the first part of the New Town project. Galeria Krakowska, with 250 shops on an area of 1,000 sqm and parking space for 1,400 cars, is scheduled to open in the fall of 2007. According to ECE Projektmanagement, 90 percent of the area already has tenants, including Ahold, Saturn, Peek and Cloppenburg, H&M, C&A, New Yorker, Empik and others.

Apart from the shopping mall, the first stage of the project also includes a 10,000-sqm office space. The cost of the investment amounts to EUR 250 (zł.970) million, which will be covered by ECE Projektmanagement and HGA Capital.

Bartosz Puzdrowski, development director at ECE Projektmanagement, says this is just the first part of the investment because of the demand for offices. "Kraków is in fashion and companies want to locate their accounting centers here," says Puzdrowski. In the second stage, the company plans to construct apartment buildings, two hotels and office buildings of 45,000 sqm. The works will start at the end of 2007, when Galeria Krakowska is opened.

Andrzej Wróbel