The High Streets: Al. Jerozolimskie
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Although located in the very center of Warsaw, Al. Jerozolimskie is rarely considered a high street. It is visited by millions of passersby per year and features retail space on the ground floors of most tenements on both sides of the street, but has a rather limited offer in terms of high street merchandise. About 70 percent of the street’s fashion and accessories brands, mostly luxury and premium names, are showcased in the Vitkac department store located at the corner of Al. Jerozolimskie and ul. Bracka. The Cedet building, situated between ul. Krucza and ul. Bracka and currently under refurbishment, will add 7,000 sqm of new retail space in 2017. Its completion will definitely bring more retail to Al. Jerozolimskie.
Retail will follow Interview with Bartłomiej Hofman, managing director of Immobel Poland You bought the Cedet building in 2011, at the trough of the crisis. Weren’t you concerned with where the market was at the time? It was a long-term plan for the start. There will always be business cycles, and once the crisis is over, the market will always rebound. Besides, a building in the city center always leases and sells well. Are you planning to sell Cedet once you’ve completed redeveloping it? Yes. We are a typical developer: we buy property, procure administrative decisions, design a building, build and lease it and then we sell it. What is your commercialization plan for the scheme? Cedet will have three levels designated for retail space, that is -1, 0 and 1, which altogether will offer 7,000 sqm of retail space. Each retail module will have its own entrance from the street. What we want to build there is a convenience center, with a supermarket, a drug store plus a few fashion boutiques, at least one restaurant and three coffee shops. We are also talking about the return of the building’s previous tenant – Smyk. Which market segment will the tenants represent? Will there be luxury brands? It will not be a place exclusively for the top-earning white collars, but for average Varsovians living and working there. All the brands in our tenant mix will be financially accessible to people working in the building and living in the neighborhood. When is the project scheduled for completion? It will be delivered in late 2016 or early 2017. The building will also feature 15,000 sqm of office space. Aren’t you afraid of the oversupply in the Warsaw office market? When you look at the space under construction at the moment, there aren’t that many projects being developed in the very heart of the city. There is a lot of supply and fierce competition in the Wola district, for instance. The companies that will choose to locate their offices in our building probably won’t be considering large office schemes, anyway. We do not want to compete with them financially. We can offer a different type of office space. An average tenant with 1,000 sqm of space is “lost” in a 100,000 sqm office project. Even when a company occupies 3,000 sqm – it is still but a fraction of the entire space. In our building that would stand for 20 percent of the total office area. What kind of units will the scheme offer? We can offer tenants 3,000 sqm of space on one floor, as well as divide the space into smaller modules, 500-1,000 sqm each. Our scheme will be unique in terms of its history, architecture and quality of space. Our offices will be fully glazed, with windows spanning 3 meters each. The gross floor height will be 4 meters, which leaves office clear height at 2.9 meters, both in the offices and hallways. Do you believe Warsaw high streets will eventually flourish like the high streets in other European cities? They are still a far cry from the high streets in Paris or London. Yes, but they are changing for the better for a number of reasons. First of all, the city continues to invest in public space, refurbishes streets and public squares, like Plac Powstańców and ul. Świętokrzyska recently. Secondly, the public transport system is constantly improving. Good public transport generates a lot of foot traffic. And once more people start walking along streets, retail will follow.
Retail will follow Interview with Bartłomiej Hofman, managing director of Immobel Poland You bought the Cedet building in 2011, at the trough of the crisis. Weren’t you concerned with where the market was at the time? It was a long-term plan for the start. There will always be business cycles, and once the crisis is over, the market will always rebound. Besides, a building in the city center always leases and sells well. Are you planning to sell Cedet once you’ve completed redeveloping it? Yes. We are a typical developer: we buy property, procure administrative decisions, design a building, build and lease it and then we sell it. What is your commercialization plan for the scheme? Cedet will have three levels designated for retail space, that is -1, 0 and 1, which altogether will offer 7,000 sqm of retail space. Each retail module will have its own entrance from the street. What we want to build there is a convenience center, with a supermarket, a drug store plus a few fashion boutiques, at least one restaurant and three coffee shops. We are also talking about the return of the building’s previous tenant – Smyk. Which market segment will the tenants represent? Will there be luxury brands? It will not be a place exclusively for the top-earning white collars, but for average Varsovians living and working there. All the brands in our tenant mix will be financially accessible to people working in the building and living in the neighborhood. When is the project scheduled for completion? It will be delivered in late 2016 or early 2017. The building will also feature 15,000 sqm of office space. Aren’t you afraid of the oversupply in the Warsaw office market? When you look at the space under construction at the moment, there aren’t that many projects being developed in the very heart of the city. There is a lot of supply and fierce competition in the Wola district, for instance. The companies that will choose to locate their offices in our building probably won’t be considering large office schemes, anyway. We do not want to compete with them financially. We can offer a different type of office space. An average tenant with 1,000 sqm of space is “lost” in a 100,000 sqm office project. Even when a company occupies 3,000 sqm – it is still but a fraction of the entire space. In our building that would stand for 20 percent of the total office area. What kind of units will the scheme offer? We can offer tenants 3,000 sqm of space on one floor, as well as divide the space into smaller modules, 500-1,000 sqm each. Our scheme will be unique in terms of its history, architecture and quality of space. Our offices will be fully glazed, with windows spanning 3 meters each. The gross floor height will be 4 meters, which leaves office clear height at 2.9 meters, both in the offices and hallways. Do you believe Warsaw high streets will eventually flourish like the high streets in other European cities? They are still a far cry from the high streets in Paris or London. Yes, but they are changing for the better for a number of reasons. First of all, the city continues to invest in public space, refurbishes streets and public squares, like Plac Powstańców and ul. Świętokrzyska recently. Secondly, the public transport system is constantly improving. Good public transport generates a lot of foot traffic. And once more people start walking along streets, retail will follow.
