The beginning of April saw the start of works on the construction site of Baltic Business Park - a complex of office buildings near the former Szczecin Shipyard. The four buildings will in total offer approximately 40 thousand square meters of office space and 800 parking spaces nearby. The investor, Koncepta of Szczecin, hopes that the new offices will be leased by Unicredit, which is now headquartered in a renovated post-shipyard office building also owned by the company.

The first building of the Baltic Business Park should be opened in autumn next year. The cost of the investment is to amount to PLN 200 million. Before the construction piles will be driven into soil which may last five months.

"Keller starts drilling to determine the depth of the groundwater. Right now we know that because of its high levels we will need to drive 2 thousand piles,” says Agnieszka Czapska, a proxy of Koncepta.

Baltic Business Park will not be the first office complex in the city. Oxygen - an office building of Echo Investment located at the intersection of Malczewskiego Street and Wyzwolenia Avenue - will be opened in the middle of the year.

"Over 50 percent of the space of Oxygen has been leased. The tenants include companies operating in the catering business and BPO as well as Nordea Bank Polska, Medicover, Coloplast Shared Services, Isabel Studio, Subway and Fabryka Gier,” says Wojciech Knawa, Leasing Manager of Echo Investment.

At the end of 2010 and beginning of 2010 an office building will be opened in the former Posejdon. The building will provide 23 thousand square meters of office space and 3.3 thousand square meters of retail space. The investor is Centrum Development & Investments which owns the modernized building. A building located at Wyzwolenia Avenue, which previously housed clothing factory Dana, has been waiting for demolition for a long time. JW Construction plans to use the site to erect its own office building. Apart from the above, a property developer owned by Ikea is planning construction of two office buildings near Brama Portowa (Port Gate).

Shopping in the Centre, Prawobrzeże and Pogodno

Szczecin will also get new shopping centres. The biggest one will be Kaskada (43 thousand square meters of space to let) to be opened in the city centre in 2011. Kaskada will house approximately 140 shops and service outlets. The key tenants include a fine food shop, large consumer electronics store, several large clothes shops and a sports shop. The investor is German ECE.

Construction of Astra shopping centre will finish at the end of 2011. The centre will be located at Struga Street at the site of a DIY, Nomi, which used to be occupied by Przedsiębiorstwo Hurtu Spożywczego.

“Construction of the Astra shopping centre is to start in Q4 2010. The conversion will take approximately 12-15 months and the works are to finish at the end of 2011,” says Wojciech Gepner PR Manager of Echo Investment SA, the investor. “The building will be modernized and converted. The conversion includes roads, greenery, modernization of the present building and parking spaces. The estimated cost is approximately PLN 120 million.

The total space of the centre is over 31 thousand square meters and the space to let, approximately 26 thousand square meters. Astra will house approx. 70 shops and service outlets, including clothes and shoe shops, sports shops, restaurants and cafes. One of the largest tenants will be Nomi, a food store, and a supermarket offering electronics and household appliances. The shopping centre will be provided with approximately one thousand parking spaces. Aster will also house a ten-screen cinema which will be constructed later on.

At present the project undergoes administrative procedures. The concept was developed by Open Architekci architectural studio. The construction design is nearly finished and has been developed by Studio A4 from Szczecin. The contractor has not been yet selected.

A bit later, in the first half of 2012 Szczecin will get another shopping centre, CH Ferio Pogodno, located on the area of former Polmo plant at Wojska Polskiego Avenue. The building of 44 thousand square meters (31.5 thousand square meters to let) is being erected by RE Project Development owned by Reiffeisen bank.

“We have been granted a building permit and the letting process has already started. Negotiations of contracts will the biggest tenants are coming to an end. Tenants interested in leasing smaller space have already signed memorandums of understanding,” says Elżbieta Krawczyk, Marketing & PR Professional of RE Project Development.

What is interesting, the main parking lot for the two-storey shopping centre (for 500 cars) will be located on the roof of the building. Customers will be able to get to the shops using escalators or lifts. Additional 300 parking lots will be located at the back of the shopping centre.

RE Project Development has not yet selected the general contractor of the shopping centre.

mab