PKP courting Biedronka, Carrefour

PKP, Poland's railway station operator, plans to sell locales worth PLN 230 million in the current year. They are in talks with Biedronka, Carrefour and various developers for railway station real estate. PKP would also like to bring back the sale of alcohol in railway station restaurants, according to an ISBnews release. The railway operator's real estate manager, Jarosław Bator, said, "We are happy with the progress of our sales in 2014." The state-owned rail company wants to encourage "small development projects" in its train stations, which upon completion of a successful pilot, may be developed nationwide. In the projects, PKP would receive a developers profit at some locales. "We are still in talks with Biedronka and Carrefour for access to shops at our train stations," said Bator, adding that convenience stores are in fashion today, after Poland has been inundated with large format stores. PKP has built two new train stations with a shopping mall attached, in Poznań and Katowice. It plans to do the same at the new Warsaw West and Warsaw Gdańsk stations.