NEINVER and PKP S.A. have completed the sale of all their remaining shares in Galeria Katowicka, the mall in downtown Katowice, to a real estate investment fund advised by Meyer Bergman, which becomes the property’s outright owner. Apsys Poland takes over management of the mall.
The Galeria Katowicka project consisted of connecting a new shopping centre to a revamped railway station and a new underground bus station in downtown Katowice. Meyer Bergman’s fund became the majority owner in 2012, two years after it first joined the development partnership formed by NEINVER and PKP. Opened in September 2013, the shopping centre comprises 47,500 sqm of commercial space spread across 200 stores, restaurants and cafés. The centre’s top floor is a Multikino multiplex cinema.
Carlos Gonzalez, NEINVER’s Managing Director said: “Galeria Katowicka and its integration with the adjacent transport hub in Katowice was a groundbreaking project for NEINVER in Poland. It was a unique project due to its magnitude, the number of entities involved, as well as the unparalleled quality of public and retail space. Undoubtedly, Galeria Katowicka now serves as a benchmark for the whole Polish real property sector.”
In its two years of operation Galeria Katowicka has enjoyed a steady rise in sales and footfall figure since opening. Monthly visitor numbers are up 18% year to date (YTD), with annual visitors now reaching 13 million, while tenants retail sales have risen 18 percent YTD. The centre has attracted high profile brands including Peek & Cloppenburg, Zara, TK Maxx, Multikino, C&A, Reserved, Euro, Douglas, and Tiger.
NEINVER and PKP S.A. devised the project to develop a shopping centre and a modern railway station with international and domestic services, for which they secured the financial backing of the Meyer Bergman fund. Galeria Katowicka has won multiple prestigious Polish and CEE real estate awards, including “Construction of the Year” awarded by the Polish Association of Engineers and Construction Technicians.
Jarosław Bator, Board Member of PKP S.A., said: “Cooperating with a private investor and then selling shares in the shopping centre have allowed PKP S.A. to generate considerable profits. This allows us to keep growing and to reinvest in new projects. What’s most important, however, is that residents and travellers can now use a railway station that meets the standards of the 21st century. We are drawing on this positive experience to become more involved in the real estate market. We established a company, Xcity Investment, specifically for the purpose of working with private investors to develop office, residential and commercial buildings, as well as new railway stations.
