The next stop - property development

Polish Railways (PKP) and logistics and transport firm Pekaes have been thinking along similar lines of late. Both have experienced difficulties in making themselves efficient and profitable, and both see the real-estate market as the answer to their problems.

PKP has a considerable real-estate portfolio and its latest strategy is to use its property in closer cooperation with local authorities.

PKP announced that it wants to engage local officials in the decision-making process concerning the modernization of railway stations, the conditions for sale and lease of PKP land, and new investments for passengers.

The first such agreement has already been signed with the Warsaw authorities, and concerns the areas around the capital's biggest stations. In the next few weeks PKP SA and Warsaw City Hall are going to prepare a complete list of real estate that would be subject to the two entities' cooperation.

Like PKP, Pekaes also has a substantial amount of real estate throughout Poland, and wants to use its assets as a part of its restructuring strategy. The president of the company, Wacław Wojciechowski, told Puls Biznesu that a financial plan for this project is underway. The company's most interesting properties are located in Warsaw, one in the area of ul. Kasprzaka, and the other just opposite the Warsaw Uprising Museum. Apart from that, the company claims it has quite a sum of money to invest. It earned zł.160 million from its public offer and in its budget from last year it has frozen zł.60 million for acquisitions. The company has already received the spatial development conditions for its plots in Warsaw. They are designated for residential and office complexes.