The office buildings and airports
The international standards of business running emphasizes the necessity of a good communication. Poland is has a very convenient location, in the center of Europe, where many investment trails cross. Thanks to this location, after the political change; Poland has become one of the business leaders in the Middle-Eastern Europe.
The international communication is significantly based on the air transportation, which is crucial for the regions wanting to become the business area. In order to attract foreign capital, they have to invest in its own development.
It also has a huge influence on the office real estate sector, which depends on attractive localization and convenient communication. It is crucial for its potential tenants whether their clients and business partners can conveniently get to the headquarters.
Having lots of airports is one of the main factor deciding whether the city will get the status of a business city. Another important advantage of numbers of airport is a development of the neighborhoods and their expansion. The investors are more prone to build their office facilities within the airport vicinity.
The mentioned trend is very popular in Western Europe. In Poland, new project of the business town in the neighborhood of Chopin Airport in Warsaw – Chopin Airport City – can serve as an example. The potential of this type of investment was noticed by Gdańsk, which announced the new business district development – Airport City, located in the neighborhood of Lech Wałęsa Airport in Gdańsk.
8 million passengers yearly
Kraków is the city with one of the most important airports – Jan Paweł II Airport in Kraków – Balice, which services international passenger traffic.
Currently, Kraków Airport is preparing to its reconstruction. During spring, the investment will begin, during which the passenger terminal will be expanded and modernized. The blueprints include the reconstruction of transportation system and the train stop.
The international terminal will be enlarged by a new part. The investment will be finished in 2015 allowing the increase of the airport capacity. In the rush hours, the airport will be able to service 1 800 of arriving passenger and 1 800 of departing passengers. It means that annually, the airport will be able to service about 8 million passengers. Reconstruction also denotes the enlargement of the usable area of 56 000 sqm.
The investment will also include the footbridge of 110 meters connected with the train station. The general contractor of this part of the investment is the Italian company Astaldi, which made an offer of gross amount of 368 884 829,66 PLN. Apart from footbridge and terminal expansion, the company will be in charge of transportation system reconstruction. That will facilitate the road traffic in the airport neighborhood. The project will be integrated with the external transportation system, which includes A4 expressway, voivodeship route no 774, railway Kraków – Mydlniki – Balice and in the future so-called Trasa Balicka.
The investment will be finance by Pekao SA bond and the European Union funds within Structural and Cohesion Fund. The total cost of terminal and transportation reconstruction and modernization was estimated for the gross amount of 330.6 million PLN
Better communication
With the cooperation of PKP PLK a new train station will be build nearby the terminal, which will secure a good transportation of the passengers from the city centre. This part of the investment will include the final stop of the railbus, located on the rears of the milti-leveled parking lot of total surface of 2 000 sqm. The construction will begin in September of 2013 and end in the second quarter of 2014. The estimated value of the project is 15 million PLN.
To improve the service quality of the airplanes, Kraków Airport will expand the taxiway of Alfa, Brafo, Golf and Fokstrot and will enlarge the taxiway of Charlie. The general contractor of this part of the investment is Konsorcjum Firm Max Bögl which offered its services for the gross amount of 161 475 184.63. In addition the company will take care of the expansion of the airport apron by additional parking spaces.
The reconstruction costs of the taxiways and the airport aprons were estimated for the net amount of 247.8 million PLN.
One can speculated whether Kraków, as Warsaw or Gdańsk, will develop the vicinity o Balice area and will create a business town. Such solution can be a great opportunity for the office sector, leading to office supply increase on the Kraków market.