Coffeeheaven and Kinderplaneta at Europa Centralna
Two more tenants are open for business at the Europa Centralna Shopping Centre in Gliwice. The first, coffeeheaven, opened last Friday, 8th March. Founded in 2000, coffeeheaven now has over 110 cafes and is one of the most popular café chains in Poland. On Monday 11th March Kinderplaneta welcomed our youngest customers in to play for the first time. Kinderplaneta has the largest network of indoor play areas and occupies 150m2 at Europa Centralna up on the first floor next to the food court. They also own the two novelty rides (a train and a car) on the ground floor. The play area is designed so that young children can stay and play, even for several hours, playing with balls, on slides, or jumping on trampolines. They can also hone their artistic skills in the specially prepared art corners.
In the second half of March, the new clothing brand Sinsay will open. The latest brand from the famous, Polish clothing company LPP, Sinsay describes itself as a new clothing brand for trendy teenagers that look for outstanding designs and love to surprise with their looks. Sinsay’s offer – a combination of bold, tasteful and fashionable clothing – is aimed chiefly at young women aged 15-24.
“The number of stores in Europa Centralna is constantly growing, with new shops opening regularly. Our goal is to broaden continually the range of our offer so that every customer can find something they like, irrespective of age or sex”, said Monika Magner, Director of C.H. Europa Centralna.
C.H. Europa Centralna opened on 1st March. The project was a joint venture between Helical Poland and Standard Life Investments. Thanks to its design as an original and practical combination of shopping mall and retail park, Europa Centralna’s customers can do all their shopping in one convenient place – whether for house and garden, DIY, electronics or the latest fashion collections. Tenants include: Saturn, Castorama, Tesco Extra, Jula, Ski Team, Jysk, SMYK Megastore, New Yorker, Solar, Reserved, H&M, Cubus, Lindex, CCC, Bershka, Apart, RTV Euro AGD, TUI, Home and You, Super Pharm, Neckermann, Deichmann, City Sport, Mohito, Promod, Cortland Apple Premium Reseller, Stradivarius, Rossmann, TAKKO Fashion and Douglas. A state of the art McDonalds Drive-Thru opened on 4th February, with its GYM&FUN play area, while RTV Euro AGD, Castorama and Saturn welcomed their first customers on 27th February. Among services available on the site are centre has a post office, automated parcel machines, wifi, cash machines and a loan service for wheelchairs and umbrellas for use on the site. There is parking for 2,300 cars and for those on foot, Europa Centralna provides two free bus services.
Helical Poland is a subsidiary company of Helical Bar plc and was established in 2005. Helical Bar plc is a UK based property development and investment company listed on the London Stock Exchange with a market capitalisation of over £350m. To take advantage of the growth potential of the Central European markets, Helical Bar opened its first overseas office in Warsaw, Poland in January 2005. Helical Poland’s joint venture partner for the investment is Standard Life Investments, one of Europe’s major investment houses with c. £150 billion assets under management.
Helical Poland specialises in retail development projects, including existing sites, sites designated for large-scale developments and joint-venture projects. The company focuses on the development of retail parks of between 10,000m2 and 20,000m2, located close to towns with populations above 50,000 inhabitants. Good road access and visibility are important. In 2008 it opened an office in Krakow. Specialising in retail parks and shopping centre development, Helical Poland completed its first project in Wroclaw, the Park Handlowy Młyn, in December 2008; a second project, Turawa Park in Opole, a 40,000m2 shopping mall, financed by Standard Life Investments, opened in April 2011.
Standard Life Investments was launched as an investment management company in 1998. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Standard Life Investments (Holdings) Limited, which in turn is a wholly owned subsidiary of Standard Life plc. With assets under management of £167.7bn (31.12.12), Standard Life Investments is one of Europe’s major investment houses. It has £10.1bn (31.12.12) of property assets making it one of the larger real estate investors in Europe. Headquartered in Edinburgh, Standard Life Investments maintains offices in a number of locations around the globe including Boston, Hong Kong, London, Beijing, Montreal, Sydney, Dublin, Paris and Seoul. In addition, it has close relationships with leading domestic players in Asia, including HFDC Asset Management in India and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank in Japan.