The plans envisage ambient walkways for pedestrians with cafes and restaurants, a hotel, offices, and apartments. All of these will be built as part of the first stage of development of the part of New Center of Lódz, located between the newly built Lódz Fabryczna train station and the EC1 Centre for Science and Technology.

The development project of the New Center of Lódz was presented at the Lódz stand at the Mipim fair in Cannes this week.

Three-stage development
Ghelamco will deliver the investment in three stages. As a part of the first stage, a new area of the city will be built, comprising a hotel, offices, apartments, and commercial outlets. Ghelamco has obtained a valid building permit for delivering the hotel and office part of the project.

Ultimately, three buildings will be built as part of the first stage. The hotel will be situated the nearest to the train station, whereas the residential building will be located by the EC1 side. The office building will be constructed in between. The ground floors will include food amenities and commercial outlets. Construction works are scheduled to start in Q3 or Q4 2018. The project was designed by PIG Architekci.

The hotel will offer 166 rooms, the office building will provide 18,000 m2 of space, and the residential building will offer around 70 apartments. According to the local spatial development plan, the buildings will consist of seven floors.

Walkways
Designed walkways will be created between the buildings. Numerous commercial spaces will be available there, such as cafes, wine bars and restaurants. This will make the New Center of Lódz generally accessible and friendly to pedestrians, Ghelamco said.  The walkways with commercial spaces will also be created as part of subsequent stages of the project.

An parking lot will be created under the complex and will be connected with the underground road between the Ghelamco’s project and EC1. The city of Lódz is now preparing to announce a public procurement procedure for the construction.

Leading regional market
'I am delighted to see another investment in the New Center of Lódz, particularly other than office space, such as hotel and apartments, much needed in this part of the city. I would also like to thank Ghelamco that it once again believed in the potential of the city of Lódz. With this investment we can see that we have a sound vision of the city’s growth, which is confirmed by the investors themselves,' said mayor Zdanowska.

Jeroen van der Toolen, managing director for CEE at Ghelamco, said Lódz is a city with a great potential. 'Its location in the heart of Poland, at the main communication routes crossing, dynamically growing service sector, historical character and most of all, educated and open-minded people make the city very attractive and perspective for investments. Lódz is becoming one of the leading regional markets in Poland, with almost 440 thousand m2 of office space, at the same time with the lowest vacancy rate at the level of 9.5%.'