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Works On Felicity begins

17/09/2012

(PAP, Kurier Lubelski, GPG) http://www.itvl.pl/news/felicity-coraz-blizej

Construction works on the shopping centre in Lublin’s Felin district will be resumed. Strabag construction company has signed a contract with Atrium European Real Estate Limited, the current owner of the investment, for construction works worth 55.4 million euro. News of the contract came from the Polish Press Agency on August 2. According to Strabag, the 75,000 sqm shopping gallery will also include an 8-screen cinema and an underground car-park for ca. 1,600 vehicles. Together with the already completed food and grocery hypermarket and the DIY store, the total investment area at this stage will amount to over 160,000 sqm, including 125,000 sqm of shopping gallery with underground car-park. The award of this contract is a great success for us, given the strained conditions on the Polish construction market and the constantly diminishing number of contracts - says Alfred Watzl, President of Strabag Sp. z o.o. The works are to be completed by February 2014. Plans for Felicity first took shape six years ago. Developer Gray International bought around 25 hectares of land around Witosa street in the Felin district and started the investment together with the Austrian investment fund MEL, executing technical infrastructure and traffic solutions for over 60 million PLN. Notably, Strabag was the contractor for the road system, and Warbud SA erected the buildings of the food hypermarket and the DIY store. The global financial crisis stopped the investment in its tracks midway. In the meantime, the ownership structure also changed - AERE has taken over shares from the Austrian fund and introduced cutbacks required in view of the still unstable economic situation on the European market. Decision of the French Auchan store chain to open a 20,000 sqm food hypermarket in the Felicity Shopping Centre only serves to confirm the potential of this location on the map of Lublin. Together with the 10,000 sqm Leroy Merlin store, these two French anchors, despite three years’ downtime and cutbacks to the project, once again create a unique opportunity for Felicity to become, as Gray International originally intended, the best shopping destination in eastern Poland. (PAP, Kurier Lubelski, GPG)

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