Emporia Towers - another victim of the crisis in the capital of Slovakia?
„Our company rescinded no project in Slovakia," accentuated John Newton, the country manager of Quinlan Private Golub for Slovakia and Hungary, in the interview for Stavebné fórum.sk on December 11, 2008. In this context it is instructive to remind another of his statement: Well-located project and ability to complete it is the key to success. Why? Well, it is certainly not glamorization of the state to admit to Emporia Towers project advantageous location on Panónska cesta, which after Einsteinova Street becomes the Petržalka "Business Street Number 2“. Even this, however, was not self-salvable for the developer: its ability to continue in construction (which he referred to half year ago) is questionable this time.
On June 18, 2008 Quinlan Private Golub (QPG)
Company announced launching Emporia Towers in Bratislava Petržalka, its largest
administrative project in Slovakia. The complex promising comfort and equipment
according to international criteria would become one of the most visible
landmarks in Bratislava because of the exceptional facade and silhouette. The
urban district, which reached to transform into the dynamic locality with the
sharp increase in foreign investments and the precious trade destination of
multinational firms towards the metropolis, has one setback: the Emporia Towers
project was stopped after one year.
Unclear terms and total costs
The leading developer of properties in the Central
and the Eastern Europe, QPG, which in the tandem with Cresco Group is just
handing over the project III Towers in Bajkalská Street and in Petržalka is
preparing the impressive South City Projects (1.5 bills Euro), or the shopping
centre South City Shopping (90 millions Euro), suddenly has problems to start
Emporia Towers. Not long time ago it believed that a strong financial background
of the Irish mother Quinlan Private, which manages assets in the amount of
11.5 bills Euro, combined with high performance of Slovak economy will enable
to realize its intentions also in times of the current global slowdown. Branches
in Bratislava, Warsaw, Prague, Budapest, Sofia, Bucharest, Vilnius and Zagreb
with more than 175 employees should have been carriers of the next
expansion.
The card, however – according to the official version, only temporarily – turned and among first victims fell QPG office project in Bratislava. Instead of the intensive construction rush and the movement of heavy mechanisms there is currently the look to the bottom of the construction pit with water and garbage. "Currently conditions for financing speculative projects in the real estate market are not favourable. In today's business climate is the key word circumspection, "said the leasing and marketing director of QPG Guy Speir SITA agency that it would be unwise to speculate on the next phase of construction works. Without the specified date, however, he pointed out that the resumption of the construction should follow immediately after the conclusion of lease contracts. Also, the amount of investment costs, initially estimated at nearly 27 million Euro, is debatable at this moment, but Speir did not exclude that construction costs will be ultimately lower than they were in 2008.
This balance will be scarcer
The Emporia Towers complex should by created by two
separate 14-storied towers offering each of 9 500 m2 of best equipped offices,
350 m2 of retail spaces (restaurants, cafes, showrooms of tenants) and totally
337 parking spaces on three underground floors and a ground floor. In the case
of the completion in the planned range it will provide more than 22 thousand m2
of “A” class office spaces with a large variety of internal segmentations.
Attributes of the excellent locality support the proximity of shopping and
entertainment centre Aupark, Petržalka station with the train connection to
Vienna, excellent transport accessibility, the main road to five Bratislava
bridges and the international highways D1 and D2.
It is therefore reasonable to assume that this-year balance of new office spaces in Bratislava will be somewhat scarcer compared to the year 2008 (+ 30 000 m2). Developers of projects such as the Apollo Business Center II, AC Petržalka, IP Center and Administrative Complex Lakeside Park – Phase 01 can, at least for this moment, forget the rivalry and congratulated each other. If for nothing else, they can congratulate each other that they managed so-so to bring their intentions to the successful finale last year at least. Initially expected gain of 164 thousand m2, which should meet Emporia Towers in 2009 along with the Digital Park II, Riverpark, BC Galvaniho IV and Jarošova OC, probably will not be achieved. With respect to this project, Quinlan Private Golub was simply unlucky that the splitter power of the crisis wave (in contrast to the III Towers residential project with extremely successful state of sell-ability) did not catch it in the late, but in the early stage of implementation.
Visualisation – QPG
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