Sept. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Leszek Czarnecki, a Polish millionaire banker and would-be astronaut, now plans to become a landlord for wealthy tenants by building the country's tallest apartment block in his hometown.
LC Corp. SA, a company controlled by Czarnecki, will invest $400 million to construct the 51-floor and 205-meter high (673 feet) building in Wroclaw, western Poland. Work will start early next year and will be completed in the second quarter 2010.
``Growing foreign investment in the Wroclaw region is increasing employment and boosting demand for apartments and office space of the highest standard,'' LC Corp. Chief Executive Officer Konrad Dubelski said at a press conference today.
Czarnecki controls commercial banking service company Getin Holding SA and has 2 billion zloty ($640 million) in assets, making him Poland's ninth-richest person, the Wprost weekly magazine said in June. The 44-year-old is also one of Poland's best-known businessmen after offering to pay the Russian Space Agency $20 million in 2002 to fly aboard a Soyuz spacecraft with Russian cosmonauts to the International Space Station.
LC Corp. plans to benefit from economic growth in Poland, the biggest of the 10 countries that joined the European Union in 2004. Demand in Wroclaw ``visibly exceeds supply'' and ``appears attractive for undertaking new development projects,'' property consulting company Reas Konsulting said in a report.
Czarnecki's firm will sell shares in the middle of next year to raise funds for further investments, Dubelski told reporters. As much as 75 percent of the investment in the Wroclaw project will be financed by a bank loan, he added.
``The share sale may be significant,'' Dubelski said, without specifying how much the company wants to raise. He added that part of the funds will be spent on a new project in Warsaw.
Getin is already working on a share sale. In June, the company said it wants to raise as much as 175 million zloty in a sale of new shares to existing investors this year.
By Marta Waldoch |