Centrum Galardia, the first joint investment of NBGI Private Equity and Balmain Asset Management, has opened to the public. Galardia is now heralded as the largest shopping centre in the region. The building work took 16 months and the result is a centre of 18,500 sqm of retail and leisure space.
The grand opening ceremony of Centrum Galardia not only attracted investor representatives, the sub-contracting companies, the tenants and the media, but also the local authorities, including the President of Starachowice, Sylwester Kwiecień.
Representatives from the investment companies – NBGI Private Equity and Balmain Asset Management summarized opening of their new shopping centre:
“Centrum Galardia is our first retail investment in Poland, which makes it particularly important for us. Even before we took the decision to build Galardia, we believed in the potential of the city of Starachowice. In my opinion, the success of Centrum Galardia is reflected in the obvious demand for shopping centres, in medium-sized and smaller Polish cities,” said James Huckle of NBGI Private Equity.
“At the very beginning, we received positive feedback to let space in Galardia from three of our leading tenants – Tesco, LPP Group and Helios. After that, the letting process ran smoothly. The result of our commercial activities is a rich and balanced tenant mix that offers a wide range of products and services to the inhabitants of Starachowice and nearby towns. On the opening day, Galardia is 99 percent leased,” added James Turner, the Managing Director of Balmain Asset Management.
Galardia includes 38 shops and six points of sale in the form of kiosks. The largest part of the lettable space, nearly 6,200 sqm, is taken by the Tesco hypermarket. One of the most popular new additions for the people of Starachowice is Helios, the first multiplex cinema in the region with four screens for over 600 viewers.
Galardia was leased by Balmain Asset Management and the architects were BP Asymetria. Balmain Asset Management was also responsible for tenants coordination and project development. Arcadis EC Harris acted as Project Managers and the General Contractor was Skanska S.A. The asset manager of the shopping centre will remain Balmain Asset Management and Balmain Property Management will be responsible for current management of the shopping centre.
