Galeria Północna now open
Retail & leisureThe construction work on ul. Światowida in Warsaw’s Białołęka district took seven years. “In 2010 we were dreaming of a beautiful shopping centre and today this dream has come true. We had to do a massive amount of work, starting with purchasing the plots and following the administrative procedures to combine them and finishing with the construction and finishing work in the centre. I have to say that we were most people gave us a kind and friendly welcome,” said Thomas Kurzmann, the CEO of Globe Trade Centre (GTC), the developer of Galeria Północna. The centre has 64,000 sqm of retail space, 200 stores, 2,300 parking spaces (with a special mobile app to help locate your vehicle in the car park), a rooftop garden combined with a food court with 20 outlets, an outdoor exercise park and a fitness club, an eleven-screen Cinema City multiplex, a skate park, three fountains (one of which is musical) and a ‘Whirlpool’ sculpture by Oskar Zięta. “Galeria Północna is very secure. We have 15,000 security checkpoints in the centre. Galeria is also environmentally-friendly: we have LEED Gold pre-certification. We recover 75 pct of the heat from the air in the centre. We had state-of-the-art lighting installed, which changes its brightness and colour depending on the sunlight available. Galeria is beautiful, bright and spacious, and additionally illuminated with natural lighting due to all the glazing. I'd like to thank everyone who contributed to its creation,” said Piotr Kroenke, the general director of GTC. “90 pct of the space in the centre has been leased. We are hoping that soon this figure will increase to between 95 and 97 pct,” says Erez Boniel, the financial director of GTC. Tenants include brands that have just entered onto the Polish retail market such as Zarina, Befree and Love Republic, which are all owned by Russian company Melon Group. There is also Hamleys (1,500 sqm), a British toy store, and Newbie, a store by KappAhl for young children. Moreover, Carrefour opened its 87th hypermarket with an area of 5,700 sqm. The company is using its new store to try out a mobile app with which customers order online but pay and collect from a brick-and-mortar store. Empik has opened a Future Store of 400 sqm, while OTCF will launch a multi-brand sports store called 4Faces (1,000 sqm). Other tenants include H&M, a number of brands from the LPP Group, TK Maxx, Forever 21, RTV Euro AGD, CCC, Calypso, Martes Sport and an Enel-Med medical centre. “Galeria Północna cost PLN 800 mln and we expect its annual turnover to reach around EUR 200 mln,” added Erez Boniel. The architectural design is by APA Wojciechowski and Tzur Architects and it was built by general contractor Unibep. Cushman & Wakefield and JLL are responsible for the leasing. Agnieszka Nowak is the centre director while Piotr Myszka is responsible for the centre’s operational management.
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