Rebuilding Warsaw's western gate
Wola, the western district of Warsaw that was the city's industrial center in the 20-year interwar period, is enjoying a revival. Its gloomy landscape, with disused and abandoned factories, breweries, and windmills, is now changing into a financial and business center. The process, however, is taking place with the industrial character of the quarter and the existing manufacturing buildings borne in mind, some of which are considered historical monuments.
The previous seats of state-owned conglomerates, including buildings and lands, are now being modernized and taken by the biggest business players. The seat of the former Zakłady Radiowe im. M. Kasprzka (M. Kasprzak radio plant) is now home to BGŻ and Kredyt Bank. The buildings formerly belonging to Zakłady Wytwórcze Lamp Elektrycznych im. Róży Luksemburg (R. Luksemburg's Electric Lamps Production Plant) are now the premises of Powszechny Bank Kredytowy. Recently, the Zakłady Materiałów Lampowych Polam (Polam Lamp Materials Plant) was also turned into a modern office building, occupied by firms such as Group4 Falck and PTK Centertel.
In the last five years the latter project has been the focus of Warsaw West Gate (WWG), a company that came to Poland in the 1990s with private capital from Britain. In 2000, after the company merged with Polam Nieruchomość, they bought the complex of buildings on ul. Prosta for some $4 (zl.13) million. A year later the company sold some of the buildings to the firm Towarowa Park, which in turn passed it to Necso, owned by the Spanish Acciona. WWG kept just one building, at Prosta 69.
The building is 37 years old. In 2003 WWG came to it as the administrator. "We decided on a model of direct management by the owner," said the president of the management board at WWG, Radosław Sieroń. After that a complex modernizing program was prepared.
"It turned out that the building's facade needed to be changed," said Sieroń. The new one was designed by architects Andrzej Gawlikowski and Jolanta Cora. The engineering works lasted a year. All the installations, safety systems, air conditioning, heating and ventilation had to be modernized. The investment, which was supported by a BPH loan, amounted to $4.5 (zl.14.5) million. "The elevation was the most expensive," said Sieroń.
Now Prosta 69 has 11,300 sqm. The basic office unit for rent is 250 sqm. The offices can be arranged in accordance with the tenants' needs. The building, ranked as B+/A-, consists of two parts of nine and seven storeys. There is a car-park for 250 vehicles. "This is a good product, available at lower costs. Some 93 percent of the building is already rented and the remaining seven is reserved," says Sieroń. The offices are only for lease, not for sale, with rent at a competitive EUR 12 (zl.46.6) per sqm.
Warsaw West Gate wants to concentrate on revitalizing projects in the city, including residential developments. "Next year we want to launch a fund in Warsaw that will deal with purchasing old and devastated flats, renovating them and reselling within five years. Market research is now underway," said Sieroń. At the moment the company is also negotiating to buy and revitalize another industrial building in the district of Wola.
