Galeria Szperk will provide 23,000 sqm of retail space Courtesy of UBM Polska

Austrian real estate investors UBM and Immofinanz Group will open their Galeria Szperk shopping center project in Gdynia on the Baltic coast in mid-February. The scheme will provide 23,000 sqm of retail space, as well as parking spaces for 960 cars.

The second phase of an investment which also includes a 7,000 sqm NOMI DIY store that opened in 2010, Galeria Szperk will house 60 stores and points of service. Tenants that have already been secured include a number of major clothing brands and a 2,000-sqm Alma Market delicatessen store.

At the beginning of March, UBM and Immofinanz Group will also open their FMZ Lublin retail project in Lublin, southeastern Poland. Construction on the facility, which will provide almost 14,000 sqm of space, has been underway since May last year.

The development will include a 8,925 sqm building occupied by a Praktiker DIY store and a 5,030 sqm shopping passage housing a number of individual outlets. Rossmann and Jula will respectively take up 407 sqm and 2,983 sqm and there will also be a large electronics and home appliances store.

“Galeria Szperk and FMZ Lublin are not the only retail projects in which UBM is involved. Our plans for the near future include the development of a shopping center in Sosnowiec,” said Peter Obernhuber, member of the management board of UBM Polska.

He added that construction on the mall is scheduled to launch in Q1 or Q2 2013 and that the company is now looking for other interesting retail locations, especially in cities with populations of more than 100,000.

Immofinanz Group is currently planning another major shopping center in Lublin which it wants to deliver by the end of next year. In the near future, the company will also focus on the development of its STOP. SHOP retail park concept across Poland.