official site for visitors to Bratislava  

This is the sixth time Bratislava is presenting at the MIPIM trade fair, and the fifth year in succession. The Bratislava exposition will be situated at a new site in the Palais des Festivals, in premises for presentation of other Central European cities and regions. At the same time, the area of Bratislava exhibition stand is 25% bigger than last year, this time covering 170 square metres.

The focus of Bratislava’s presentation this year in Cannes concerns projects aimed at the continuity of development, zone conversion and selected projects representing various segments of real estate, especially housing, shopping, leisure, entertainment and logistics.

“The era of revitalisation and regeneration is gradually coming to an end also in Central and East Europe”, notes Bratislava Mayor, Andrej Ďurkovský, before the beginning of this year’s trade fair. “While the final decade of last century in Europe was characterised by a massive wave of reconstruction of historical centres, regeneration of former industrial areas, and the construction of shopping and entertainment centres, at present I feel that it will be those cities and towns that are capable of attracting also interesting production operations to their locality that will have the upper hand in future. The kind of operations that are friendly to the environment – science and technology parks, knowledge economy facilities, as well as for culture and leisure. These are the very segments in which I would like to see greater involvement of the private sector in Bratislava”.

The spring will see the culmination of two ambitious projects on the Danube embankment in Bratislava, which will create a new quality environment in the city centre and provide new modern facilities for shopping, housing, work and leisure. Eurovea is like the city’s way of making up for neglecting the Danube embankment for so many years. A promenade stretching over 1 km leads to the new central square in front of the recently finished National Theatre building. The zone is also home to the 5* Hotel Sheraton, a shopping gallery and an IMAX 3D cinema. RiverPark lies directly in contact with the historical city centre below castle hill. The complex includes 203 first class apartments, shops, office premises, the 5* Hotel Kempinski and an embankment promenade.

Both these mixed-use complexes on the River Danube go to prove that this is clearly one of the most interesting developer localities in Bratislava. You can be sure that in the coming years other investments will spring up around Eurovea and RiverPark, as areas used until recently for industry now offer huge potential for the development of housing, recreation, commercial activities, and various public and sports areas. One of the most distinct developer projects in the whole of Central and East Europe can be found with the mixed-use complex Twin City, which will also include a modern new central bus station. The project is moving forward intensively, even in the face of the crisis, and it will be boosted by the development of one of the underground railway stops that will link up Filiálka Station with the international railway corridor TEN-T 17 – the European rail artery between Paris, Stuttgart, Vienna and Bratislava, or Budapest. As part of the ongoing process of modernising the travel gateways to the capital city, in 2008 work started on the construction of a new airport terminal (www.airportbratislava.sk), which once complete will see the airport’s annual capacity go from 2.5 million travellers at present to an impressive 5.5 million.

As part of the conversion of the locality, Bratislava anticipates the gradual revitalisation of the Podhradie zone below the castle. The urban concept of this area once occupied by the Vydrica stream and covering almost 2.6 hectares doesn’t try to imitate the former historical part of the city, but instead creates a completely new zone with a contemporary feel and modern architecture.

Quality residential projects have shown to be the first to start progressively reviving the crisis-stricken property market in Bratislava. Major projects focusing primarily on housing are planned for localities like The Port, South City and Petržalka City. In the north-west of Bratislava, in particular, there is still no quality shopping centre, which is why retail chains have a keen interest in the development project The Port (Lamač). This lack of a shopping centre should be remedied by 2012 thanks to the new shopping-leisure centre Bory Mall covering an area of 65,000 m2, which is being developed by the company Penta.

The outdated Zlaté Piesky sports and recreational area is also seeking a strategic investor. The city wants to transform this once highly popular locality into an attractive resort with year-long operation. The city has produced a new urban study for the locality. Not so far away, the conversion of the 70-year old ice-hockey stadium into a modern multi-purpose arena will culminate by Christmas 2010, just in time to host the World Ice-Hockey Championships in the spring of 2011. The construction of a new football stadium costing around EUR 100 million is in preparation in the traditional locality for sports facilities Tehelné pole, and it will satisfy the UEFA criteria for a 4* stadium.

Where the segment of logistics is concerned, the city once more presents the idea of the CEPIT science and technology park in the north-east of Bratislava, which is founded on the idea of linking up education, research and development, and economics. The park area, covering more than 60 hectares, will provide a wide mix of functions, complemented by office space, a business incubator, services, accommodation and leisure facilities. While the city was involved in preparation of the project to date only on the level of urban planning, in the future it looks set to become more active in the process of seeking a competent strategic investor. Another objective is to establish a new river wharf as a green-field project between the Slovnaft refinery and the River Danube. The project is currently at the urban study stage. The new docks should draw on excellent transport connections and will be equipped with state-of-the-art port technologies, which the current docks lack.  The surrounding area should become the home of logistics parks, light assembly halls, transhipment facilities and warehouses.

If you would like to discuss any of these projects, the current status of zone development, the updated land use plan of Bratislava and its economic status, join us for a cocktail at the Bratislava stand (08.16, Level 01, Palais des Festivals) on Thursday 18th March 2010 at 11 am, also in the presence of Mayor of Bratislava, Andrej Ďurkovský, and Director of Bratislava City Hall, Anna Pavlovičová.

Contact:

City of Bratislava

Mayor’s Office of Marketing & Tourism

Milan Vajda (mobile: +421 902 985 807)

Primaciálne námestie 1, 814 99  Bratislava

Tel.: +421 2 59 356 155, fax: + 421 2 59 356 584

E-mail: vajda@bratislava.sk