Two to tango
Located in the Aleje Jerozolimskie, on the Western reaches of the capital, the 11 screens with 2,500 seats at the Blue City shopping and entertainment center should be ready by the end of the year.
by Katarzyna Rączka
"As you can see today, this is the tendency across the world," said Yoram Reshef, Blue City's general director. "The time when the shops alone were an attraction is gone. A shopping center, in order to survive for a longer period and in order to be attractive, needs to have additional features."
Blue City has been going along with this tendency, and the results are already there to be seen. Apart from diversified retail and services, its facilities include 209 shops, an interior-design center and a medical center. The 220,000-sqm complex also boasts the 5,000 sqm Magic City entertainment center designed for both young and adult visitors. In December 2004 its games area, a Go-Cart track, kids' play area Inca Play, and the Lucid night club were joined by Kamuflage Skate Park, a joint project between Blue City, Kamuflage and Sprite.
More is still to come. Soon a Holmes Place fitness club of 1,800 sqm and a 230-room, three-star hotel operated by the Spanish company, Barceló, will join the team.
By way of further diversification, an office part of around 12,000 sqm will be added at a later stage, with Reshef stressing that Blue City has focused on a long-term development strategy.
The cinema will be built at the top of the adjacent car-park building. Construction will start in the spring and may 11 months.
"The construction of the building itself is very easy; the big money is with the interior," said Reshef. "The total cost of the investment is estimated at E7.7 million. Who will pay how much will be known by mid-February, as the business and financing negotiations are still underway."
Even though most major shopping centers can now boast a mall, Blue City has decided to introduce some new features and solutions that will make one's trip to the cinema almost entirely hassle-free.
"One interesting feature of this project is that the ticket counters will be in the food court, or even maybe on the ground floor," said Paweł Wachnik, Multikino's managing director. "But the power and the essence will be in what will come in the interior: the seats, screens, projectors, the booking system, accessibility, and everything that will be going on in there."
And it won't be just films. Among others Wachnik mentioned concerts and live coverage of sports. This should send visitors queuing up for tickets. Wachnik told Lokale Immobilia that he expects the cinema to attract some 500,000 visitors in its first few years of existence.
"And this will be a good number," he said adding that from this figure he would like to reach much higher. "If Poles start to go to the cinema as often as other Europeans, then we can even have one million a year."
It's not just the most modern equipment and surprises that may help him achieve this. This part of Warsaw does not have a modern multi-screen cinema.
"From Multikino's point of view, Blue City is an interesting place because there is no other cinema in the vicinity. People go to the cinema that is nearest," said Wachnik.
Another attracting factor may be 'family packages'. Blue City prides itself on its family-oriented approach, and though no exact details in this respect are known as yet, Multikino is considering ways to attract entire families.
Although the opening of Blue City's new cinema is still almost a year away, the promotion campaign has already begun. Starting in February it will be possible to buy tickets at Blue City, and the shopping and entertainment center's billboards will appear in the Multikino in Warsaw. On February 10 Blue City's visitors will see the first show, the premiere of Peter Chelsom's 2004 picture Shall We Dance?.
"One of the most beautiful scenes of this film takes place in a shopping center, so together with the distributor, SPI, and Blue City we decided that a shopping center will be an excellent place for this show," said Paweł Wachnik.
by Katarzyna Rączka
"As you can see today, this is the tendency across the world," said Yoram Reshef, Blue City's general director. "The time when the shops alone were an attraction is gone. A shopping center, in order to survive for a longer period and in order to be attractive, needs to have additional features."
Blue City has been going along with this tendency, and the results are already there to be seen. Apart from diversified retail and services, its facilities include 209 shops, an interior-design center and a medical center. The 220,000-sqm complex also boasts the 5,000 sqm Magic City entertainment center designed for both young and adult visitors. In December 2004 its games area, a Go-Cart track, kids' play area Inca Play, and the Lucid night club were joined by Kamuflage Skate Park, a joint project between Blue City, Kamuflage and Sprite.
More is still to come. Soon a Holmes Place fitness club of 1,800 sqm and a 230-room, three-star hotel operated by the Spanish company, Barceló, will join the team.
By way of further diversification, an office part of around 12,000 sqm will be added at a later stage, with Reshef stressing that Blue City has focused on a long-term development strategy.
The cinema will be built at the top of the adjacent car-park building. Construction will start in the spring and may 11 months.
"The construction of the building itself is very easy; the big money is with the interior," said Reshef. "The total cost of the investment is estimated at E7.7 million. Who will pay how much will be known by mid-February, as the business and financing negotiations are still underway."
Even though most major shopping centers can now boast a mall, Blue City has decided to introduce some new features and solutions that will make one's trip to the cinema almost entirely hassle-free.
"One interesting feature of this project is that the ticket counters will be in the food court, or even maybe on the ground floor," said Paweł Wachnik, Multikino's managing director. "But the power and the essence will be in what will come in the interior: the seats, screens, projectors, the booking system, accessibility, and everything that will be going on in there."
And it won't be just films. Among others Wachnik mentioned concerts and live coverage of sports. This should send visitors queuing up for tickets. Wachnik told Lokale Immobilia that he expects the cinema to attract some 500,000 visitors in its first few years of existence.
"And this will be a good number," he said adding that from this figure he would like to reach much higher. "If Poles start to go to the cinema as often as other Europeans, then we can even have one million a year."
It's not just the most modern equipment and surprises that may help him achieve this. This part of Warsaw does not have a modern multi-screen cinema.
"From Multikino's point of view, Blue City is an interesting place because there is no other cinema in the vicinity. People go to the cinema that is nearest," said Wachnik.
Another attracting factor may be 'family packages'. Blue City prides itself on its family-oriented approach, and though no exact details in this respect are known as yet, Multikino is considering ways to attract entire families.
Although the opening of Blue City's new cinema is still almost a year away, the promotion campaign has already begun. Starting in February it will be possible to buy tickets at Blue City, and the shopping and entertainment center's billboards will appear in the Multikino in Warsaw. On February 10 Blue City's visitors will see the first show, the premiere of Peter Chelsom's 2004 picture Shall We Dance?.
"One of the most beautiful scenes of this film takes place in a shopping center, so together with the distributor, SPI, and Blue City we decided that a shopping center will be an excellent place for this show," said Paweł Wachnik.
