Blackstone's Polish fund to expand Magnolia Park in Wroclaw

Private equity firm Blackstone's newly launched Polish retail fund will reveal expansion plans for its 67,000 m² Magnolia Park retail and entertainment centre in Wroc³aw at next week's Mapic fair in Cannes.

The King's Street Retail fund, which was launched at end-October to invest in Polish retail assets, is seeded with a portfolio of three shopping centres providing over 130,000 m² of retail space - Magnolia Park in Wroclaw, Galeria Twierdza in Klodzko and Galeria Twierdza in Zamoeæ.

The expansion plans for Magnolia entail the construction of an additional 10,200 m² in the south-eastern part of the scheme, where the Castorama DIY store will be located. A rooftop car park offering 500 spaces is also being added. Construction work is due to be completed by the first quarter of 2012, bringing the total area of the centre to 77,500 m².

'We want Magnolia Park to be the dominant retail and entertainment centre in Wroc³aw,' said Paul Heller, principal at Blackstone.

Magnolia Park is managed by Master Management Group, a retail space manager and developer in Poland which was mandated to provide transaction advisory services, property management, as well as leasing services to King’s Street Retail's properties.

Galeria Têcza - which opened last week in Kalisz - is to be acquired by Blackstone by the end of 2011, and will be added to the King's Street Retail portfolio.