The unique place to do business

Pomerania is the northern region of Poland with the access to the Baltic Sea, known for its development of the maritime industry. The biggest agglomeration of the regions contains three cities, which are called the Tri-City – Gdańsk, Gdynia, and Sopot. However, with each year the region is more and more involved in the development of other business sectors. Openness for new investments has led Pomerania to be ranked by Milken Institute in the period 2012-2017 as the region with the second highest employment growth in the EU. The region was also ranked as the fourth Best Performing City in Europe. Additionally, Pomerania is the highest economically growing region of Poland and is currently ranked as a third most innovative Polish region.

It is a very prospective region, ready to bring in more investments

Invest in Pomerania is a regional non-profit initiative supporting foreign direct investors. The organization is dedicated to promoting the region and bringing in investors. In the period of 2016-2018, the organization carried out successfully 35 investment projects, which created approximately 5,000 new job places. Majority of the investors brought by the organization are of the US and Scandinavian origin. Invest in Pomerania has brought companies such as Flex, Northvolt, Jabil, Lacroix, Swarovski, Intel, Amazon, State Street, Ricoh or Marine Harvest into the region.

The Tri-City is the fourth largest office market in Poland and the fourth location in Poland in terms of investments from the business services sector. According to JLL, at the end of the third quarter of 2018, the supply of modern office space amounted to 775,000 square meters, and the demand reached over 66,000 square meters. Currently, the highest transactional rates in the Tri-City varies from EUR 12.75 to EUR 14.00 per square meter per month, which is a competitive rate compared to other regional cities.

Pomerania, Tri-City in particular, is regarded as a prospective market. The region has a positive migration balance (the biggest academic center in Northern Poland, one of the most attractive locations to live in). Moreover, Pomerania is a popular location for second homes due to the access to the Baltic Sea. The residential market is characterized by rising prices that have been growing at 15 – 20% rate for the last two years.

Also, the retail market in Poland continues to grow as it is relatively under-supplied with shopping center space. Pomerania offers nearly 870,000 square meters of gross leasable area (GLA), which amounts for 9% share in the Polish market. The majority of retail space in the region is located in the Tri-City. With nearly 70% share, shopping centers offering 560,000 square meters of GLA. Retail parks offer 18% of the total stock (157,300 square meters) and retail warehousing offer 14% share (134,000 square meters).

Also, the hotel market is constantly growing in the region. Over the last seven years, the number of tourists visiting Pomerania has increased by 55% reaching 9 million visitors annually. The strong brand of the city of Gdańsk in the international arena builds the recognition of the entire Pomeranian Voivodeship and cities forming the metropolis. One of the main beneficiaries of the growing tourism is the hotel industry, in which the occupancy rate grows hand in hand with the standard of the establishment. The occupancy of tourist accommodation establishments in Pomerania is slightly higher than the country’s average (41,9% versus 39,3%).

Current biggest investment projects in Pomerania include:

• The Imperial Shipyard – the vision of an exciting combination of adaptive re-use projects and new, contemporary architecture with a development potential of 400,000 square meters, located in the most historic part of Gdansk – the former Shipyard area,
• The Sail – multi-functional complex building connected with the entrance to the football stadium, with a conference center for 2,500 people, and
• Gdynia Waterfront – a complex of comfortable residential buildings and modern offices surrounded by green squares offering sea view.

Pomerania is a unique place to do business, both for developers and capital investors. Well-developed business infrastructure, availability of skilled workforce and mature market contribute to the steady growth of the agglomeration. Pomerania is a top real estate market in northern Poland.