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Felicity in Lublin set to change the face of the city

Estates News 06/04/2007

Felicity in Lublin set to change the face of the city

 The Felicity shopping and entertainment complex in Lublin, an estimated EUR 100m investment, is set to provide 2,000 people with jobs during the construction process, and a further 1,500 when the centre opens. Designs for the project include space for 200 shops and boutiques, a hypermarket, furniture shop, restaurants and cafes, spread over a total leasable area of 125,000sqm.
 Ryszard Lesniewski, President of Gray International, who are investing in the project, commented on why the company chose Lublin: “We found that there are more than one and a half million people living in the centre’s catchment area and that these people want to see high quality shopping center. At the moment, they have to come to Warsaw, with is a round trip of five hours by car. We decided to go to Lublin and build a large-scale project that is of the same standard as Arcadia. We knew that if we build a small shopping centre, then some of the bigger tenants wouldn’t want to be involved”.
 He went on to comment on when the center is likely to open. “We had scheduled opening for 2008. It is still physically and technically possible, but I foresee some difficulties, because of the size of the project. We need 1,000 workers in Lublin and so we are negotiating with the biggest construction companies in Poland who are currently discussing creating a consortium. I would therefore prefer to say that Felicity should be opening in March 2009.”
 “We had a meeting with representatives of the city and they said that they see that one important investment starts to attract others. They feel that Lublin has become fashionable, if it continues like this, Lublin will face the same problems as Wroclaw, which is short of young people. After we announced our investment in the area, plans to build technology park and a new airport emerged. Technology companies are aware that Lublin is a town with a lot of students, there are 100,000 students in Lublin, the second biggest student population outside Crakow, and they want to capitalize on this work force. We will probably be perceived as the company that began this positive investment trend.”
 In terms of why Gray International’s partner company Meinl European Land, chose to invest in Felicity Mr Lesniewski commented: “Strategic decisions involving considerable financial means are never made of the basis of sheer promises. They require verifiable data for assessing the risk and opportunities involved in a given project. To a large extent, our company owes its current position to specific know-how covering urban strategy, competence in financial instruments, and sound knowledge of our financial partners’ expectations. Today proficiency in financial engineering is an absolute must for any good developer. For that reason, from the very start we put great emphasis on creating an in-house legal and financial department. Without a shadow of a doubt, this team is a greatest asset of Gray International.”

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