The battle of the mega-malls in Mokotow
Galeria Mokotow and Sadyba Best Mall, two of the biggest Western-style shopping malls to ever be developed in the country, are set to open this week in Warsaw.
The arrival of the malls, which some people are calling the first "real" shopping malls in Poland, comes amid a retail development boom that has until now lacked significant investment in large-scale, modern shopping/entertainment complexes.
To date, retail centers have either been basic hypermarket-anchored suburban malls or smaller-sized malls such as the Norwegian-owned Klif in the Wola district, which contains shops but no entertainment facilities.
Galeria Mokotow and the Sadyba Best Mall, in addition to thousands of square meters devoted to retail, will have among their stable of entertainment options cinema, bowling, and restaurant facilities.
"These are two shopping malls of a new generation," said Piotr Kaszynski, a retail agent with Healey & Baker, which is marketing retail space in Galeria Mokotow.
Galeria Mokotow, which will have total space of 70,000 square meters including 49,000 square meters of retail space for some 170 stores, will open on Sept. 6 at the intersection of Aleja Wilanowska and ulica Woloska in the Mokotow district.
The following day, also in Mokotow but at the crossroads of ulica Powsinska and ulica Bonifacego, the $50 million Sadyba will hold its grand opening. The 53,000 square-meter mall includes 24,000 square meters of retail space for its 100 stores.
Opening the two complexes at the same time will test the demand for mall shopping in the capital and force both centers, which are located just four kilometers apart, to compete for customers, sources said.
"They open at the same time and will fight for clients," said Aleksander Karkut, an agent with Knight Frank Nieruchomosci.
Both malls claim they are good enough to be successful. "Galeria Mokotow will dominate this part of the city," said Kaszynski of Healey & Baker. "It will have more clients than Sadyba."
Kaszynski said that Galeria Mokotow has already been a favorite of big multinational retailers simply because of its size. "The (retail) business is where you have choice and competition," he said.
Galeria Mokotow charged rents of $30-$55 per square meter and still managed to lease all available retail space before completion, Kaszynski said. But the smaller Sadyba, developed by Israeli IT International Theaters, said that it beats Galeria Mokotow due to its better location.
Sadyba which is 85% let is located in a residential area within walking distance to the large residential districts of Stegny and Sadyba. "We're close to each other, but we're in the residential center; they're in the business center," said Renata Kacperowska, marketing manager with Sadyba.
Kaszynski admitted that Galeria Mokotow is not as close to residential areas as Sadyba, but said the mall is more strategically located for motorists, who are more profitable customers for malls than people who walk to do their shopping. "Galeria Mokotow is far from residential areas but 350,000 people live within a 10-minute drive," Kaszynski said.
But Sadyba has a secret weapon to attract buyers a state-of the-art Imax theater developed by the Canada-based Imax company, which specializes in 3-D special-effects cinemas. Sadyba will boast the first Imax in Central Europe, Kacperowska said. Both the Imax and a 12-screen multiplex cinema operated by the Israeli Cinema City will be operational when Sadyba opens, she said. "We're starting 100% complete with the cinema and Imax," she said.
The multiplex cinema in Galeria Mokotow which will be operated by the South African Ster Century firm will be opened later this year.
Despite fierce competition between the two malls, property sources said that the duel will not result in a casualty, as both will attract enough buyers. "I think there's room for two," Karkut of Knight Frank said.
U.K. baker to test retail biz
U.K.-based Bakery Services plans to invest in a chain of "coffee and sandwich" cafes in Poland, said Michael Ovadenko, the president of Bakery Services Polska.
The project is the first retail venture for Bakery Services, which specializes in the bakery business. If its retail business in Poland goes well, the company could expand into other countries, Ovadenko said. Last month the company opened its first outlet in Poland in the Gemini shopping mall in the northern port city of Gdynia.
"We wanted to start in a market that is less competitive that in the U.K. and has a lot of potential," he said.
The cafes will be called Coffee Heaven and will be a mix between the U.S. Starbucks and the U.K.'s Pret A Manger in other words, large-coffee-and-sandwich chains, Ovadenko said. Coffee Heaven plans to sell more food than the drink-based Starbucks, but be more of a cafe than the sandwich-oriented Pret A Manger, he said.
Bakery Services plans to open its second outlet in September in the Galeria Mokotow mall in Warsaw. The 57 square-meter outlet is smaller than Gdynia's 80 square-meter store.
Bakery Services plans to test whether sales in its Gdynia and Warsaw outlets are encouraging enough to merit investing in a chain of cafes around the country, Ovadenko said.
"We are dipping our feet in very slowly," he said.
If business goes well, Bakery Services would develop up to 50 outlets in large Polish cities over the next four to five years, he said.
"The first signs are very promising," he said. Ovadenko wouldn't reveal any details about the performance of the Gdynia outlet or the planned amount of investment. "We do highly believe that we're in the right market," he added.
Dutch building golf
course near Krakow
Dutch developer ARD International is investing zl. 15 million-zl. 20 million ($3.4 million-$4.5 million) to develop an 18-hole golf course near the town of Niepolomice close to Krakow, the developer said.
ARD, which started development of the golf course last year, is expected to complete the first nine holes by December, said Constant Thunnissen, chairman of the ARD-owned Krakow Golf & Country Club company.
ARD, which specializes in agriculture business and the use of agricultural land for entertainment purposes, decided to develop a golf course near Krakow in 1995 when it acquired 45 hectares of land near Niepolomice.
Construction of the course didn't begin until 1999, however, because it took several years and many trips to ministries in Warsaw to persuade the central government to grant a permit for the use of agricultural land for leisure purposes, he said.
ARD picked the Krakow area for its first Polish project because "Krakow is a beautiful city, has 1.2 million inhabitants (including the suburbs) and a dynamic economy," Thunnissen said.
ARD had also considered Warsaw, but there is already a golf course in nearby Rajszewo, and the entire southern portion of the country didn't have any golf facilities, he said.
The developer plans to target mostly Polish customers for the golf course, but it also sees foreigners making up a significant portion of its clients, he said.
The club already has 33 members but hopes to have as many as 750. Currently, members pay zl. 1,400 annually plus a onetime fee of zl. 8,000, which gives them a share in the ownership of the golf course, Thunnissen said.
In brief:
Jerzy Wysocki will join the U.K.-based property firm Knight Frank Nieruchomosci in mid-September as head of the agency unit, the company said. Wysocki had been an agent at Knight Frank before moving to Healey & Baker, where he has worked for the past eight months. Wysocki, who used to be a professional musician, replaces Richard Sexton, who returned to the U.K. in June.
