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Shopping Centers Today -> April 2007
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Embracing Western retail principlesWhen ICSC members converge on Warsaw on April 25-27 for this year’s European Conference, they will find a city that is embracing the capitalist lifestyle, and that means there is plenty of retail. The city is blossoming with shopping centers — 13 at last count — and its main streets are awash with boutiques and international brands. Indeed, retail therapy seems to be good for what ailed the Varsovians, as Warsaw residents are known, under the long reign of communism. Most of Warsaw’s downtown shopping can be found along Ulica Marszalkowska and nearby Aleje Jerozolimskie (“ulica” means street, “aleje” avenue). On Jerozolimskie, near the Zachodni train station, you’ll find the massive and modernistic new Blue City mall (trust us — you can’t miss it), with over 200 stores, a skating center and even a go-cart track. There are plenty of smaller draws in the area too, such as the high-end Klif shopping center and Galeria Tara. Some of the biggest shopping venues lie just outside the city center. Galeria Mokotow, on Warsaw’s south side, has 240 stores spread over 600,000 square feet. To the northwest is Arkadia, Poland’s largest shopping center, at 1.1 million square feet. This property is 35 percent owned by Simon Property Group; Paris-based developer Groupe B.E.G. owns the rest. In the southeastern section sits the 11-year-old Promenada, which is still going strong despite its status as one of Warsaw’s early mall ventures. If your interests are more retro, take a stroll to Arka, the city’s oldest department store, on Ulica Bracka. Built in 1914, Arka features a grand staircase, lovely stained glass and some ornate architectural detail. It lacks the eyeball-blasting features of Blue City, but it does have some Old European charm that the newcomers cannot touch.
The best bet for souvenirs are the small shops and artists’ stalls in the Old Town, where you can buy Polish lace, leather, pottery and jewelry. In fact, street vendors, both legit and illegal, can be found all over the city, hawking such disparate goods as napkins and wooden carvings. Want even more? Europe’s largest flea market is open every morning in the Praga district, next to Dziesieciolecia Stadium. It offers a dizzying array of goods and tons of atmosphere, but keep your hand on your wallet — petty crime is a problem. Poland charges a value-added tax that ranges from 6 to 18 percent, depending on what is being purchased. If you spend over 200 zlotys ($67) in one shop in one day, you are entitled to a refund on the tax. — Curt Hazlett |
HONORING COURAGEPoland suffered horribly under the Nazis, and no one more than its Jews. When the war began in 1939, Warsaw had the second-largest Jewish population of any city in the world, at 350,000. By the end of the war, there were only 200. In the Muranow section of the city, the Ghetto Heroes Monument commemorates the ghetto uprising of 1943, in which thousands of Jews fought back before ultimately being crushed by the Germans. The monument is on the site of the Jewish Fighting Organization headquarters and is sculpted of granite the Nazis intended for a victory monument of their own. Warsaw as a whole rose up in 1945 as Soviet armies approached, but the Nazis put that down and leveled every building.
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Old vs. New
Among the biggest retail events of 2006 was the opening of ING’s Zlote Tarasy, or Golden Terraces, a glittering, downtown mixed-use project with 700,000 square feet of retail. Zlote Tarasy’s high design stands in stark contrast to the nearby Palace of Culture, one of the great edifices of the Stalinist era. Poles widely derided that Soviet-built skyscraper, seeing it as a gray reminder of their dominated status. Now that Stalin’s name has been chiseled out of the lobby, the place does yeoman’s duty as a regular office building.
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