City Portrait Warsaw 2 deindustrialisation of several districts of Warsaw that in mid-2000s From post-communist to have become host to new business activities and housing. On the corporate - how the neo-liberal other hand, the unclear legal situation of majority of centrally pla- ced real estate due to the Bierut’s Decree and the lack of legislation forces are shaping the Warsaw efforts on the part of the state has led to unregulated or rather wild reprivatisation. Conditions of spatial and economic development of urban space Warsaw as a post-socialist city are therefore shaped by drastic eco- nomic pressures of global-scale corporate capital and the withdrawal of the state and local authorities from strategic navigation of this The determinants of spatial and economic develop- transformation. ment of Warsaw as a post-socialist city New economic trends Warsaw is one of those European cities that had been thoroughly destroyed during the military operations and demolitions of the Post-1989 Warsaw went through a major transformation from a Second World War. About 77 per cent of the city urban tissue ceased socialist industrial city to a neoliberal metropolis and became a part to exist. Immediately after the liberation, the regime set up the Capital of a global network of cities servicing the processes of international City Reconstruction Bureau (Biuro Odbudowy Stolicy) - an institution capital flows and accumulation. According to the Globalization and devoted to coordination and planning of post-war reconstruction of historic urban tissue of the city and rebuilding its main districts. Se- veral parts of the city centre were built anew in the spirit of socialist realism. The Old City was reconstructed according to historic plans. These large-scale projects were only made possible thanks to the so-called Bierut’s Decree according to which the Warsaw City Council could nationalise all properties within the limits of the city of Warsaw. Image 2. Warsaw Downtown by Filip Bramorski, on Flickr World Cities classification carried out at Loughborough University, Warsaw ranked 19th in the world and 6th in Europe in the classifi- cation of alpha class metropoles (higher than Zurich, Vienna, Barce- Image 1. Warsaw’s Old Town in 1945. Source: Warszawa stolica Polski, Społeczny lona or Berlin). The progressive growth of Warsaw’s importance in Fundusz Odbudowy Stolicy, wyd. II, Warszawa 1949, p. 101 the globalised economy was strengthened in 2004 by accession to The economy of the socialist capital was largely based on industrial the European Union and resilience to the effects of the 2008 crisis. activity. The population of Warsaw, drastically reduced during the war Warsaw’s global significance is in synergy with its capital function in to mere 480 thousand people, started to grow thanks to the influx a country characterised by centralized state administration structure. of workforce, reaching 1 million in 1955 and 1,25 million in 1965. In Central functions of Warsaw resulting from location of state institu- response to the population growth, the area of Warsaw was enlarged tions, power and decision-making bodies are a key location factor for in 1951 and new housing programs were established. However, since macroregional headquarters and branches of multinational corpora- they were not efficient enough, residency registration limits were tions as well as domestic companies. introduced. This concentration and synergy produces the so-called “St. Matthew The transformation of the city after 1989 has not been pre-plan- effect” (accumulated advantage), because it creates, for example, ned. On the one hand, the pressure of the market economy and the demand for creative services, which contributes to the concentra- deterioration of large parts of the city’s industry have resulted in rapid tion of not only advertising agencies in Warsaw, but more broadly the creative sector companies (film, computer games, media). The City Portrait Warsaw 3 largest research and development potential is also concentrated in słowy in the southern part of the city). Warsaw. It is most visible at the Ochota Campus created by several research organisations - science and experimental faculties of the Transformation of the service sector along the vector of increasing University of Warsaw, the Warsaw Medical University and the science added value favours the growth and cosmopolitanisation of the mid- institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences. This area, similarly to dle class, which translates into demand for housing and expectations the office buildings of the financial sector in Wola, is woven into the of Warsaw’s urban functions (availability of leisure and quality-of-life global knowledge production system. Even though the R&D potential amenities). The process of suburbanisation, growing housing density of that area is high, it does not fully translate into commercialisation in post-industrial areas (maximizing capital efficiency per unit) and or growth of innovation-driven or high-tech start-ups. Its impact is urbanisation of former agrarian areas in peripheral districts (Bia- limited to generation of basic knowledge and human capital that can łołęka, Wawer) is constantly being accompanied by the process of only be processed into real products by global centres controlling the creating premium class housing in exclusive locations for the upper technological frontier. middle class and financial elite. At the same time, there is high invest- ment pressure on centrally located, working-class districts (Wola, Despite its nominally high and growing position, Warsaw holds mainly Praga), where modern, gated apartment buildings are increasingly subsidiary functions towards globalized capital with little impact on emerging between neglected tenement houses, creating a tensioned the creation of new technologies, organizational and normative pat- class-spatial patchwork. terns as well as innovations and trends. This situation will not change in the foreseeable future due to the distance from the technological The increasing fragmentation and complexity of this kind of metro- frontier and the weakness of the domestic capital. polisation and related transformations of the social sphere move urban development outside of the effective control of the city autho- rities, and this inefficiency is compounded by the municipality’s legal New urbanisation trends position. It’s even possible to identify a post-planning epidemic that results in spatial policy based on putting out fires and solving absurd The urban development of Warsaw is a result of interaction between problems that developers should have taken care of in the first place. processes that are running simultaneously, but often remain under One of the most visible impacts of this process is the underdevelop- tension. Growing importance of metropolitan functions causes a ment of communication, social and cultural infrastructure, which does systematic increase in demand for office space as well as housing not keep up with the transformations of urban space evolving along space. In combination with highly bureaucratic and time-consuming the vector of capital accumulation efficiency. As a result, Warsaw is planning procedures, reactive spatial policy and wild reprivatization, one of the few European cities noting the increase of the importance fast growth makes the city space chaotic, easily influenced by ad hoc of the car as the primary means of transport, with almost 9 cars per expectations, needs and interests of developers and wealthy groups. 10 people, which is much higher than Berlin (3/10), Vienna (4/10 ) or Frankfurt (4.5 /10). The increasing added value of services drives the development of Warsaw’s CBD and therefore causes relative devaluation of the exi- Does this chaos only result from disproportionate dynamics, or is sting secondary business districts, such as the so-called Mordor (an it an intentional strategy favouring capital over people, who are left office district with over 1 million sq m of space in Służewiec Przemy- to their own resources? Regardless of the answer, Warsaw and its residents have to face emergent phenomena - the consequences of The lar The proximity of airport and buildings located in S u ewiec fast city railway (SKM). complex urban system growth, such as the decreasing air quality due subzone – over 1 million m2. Modernization of Marynarska The lar street and new public-private to the increase car traffic and intra-urban and suburban emissions. park in Warsaw – Empark partnership initiatives improving (107,000 m 2). of Suwak street. One of rent rates – attractive incentive High parking r packages for tenants. buildings. New social trends SUPPLY (M 2) VACANCY RATE (%) RENT (EUR/M 2/MONTH) 1,338,300 16.2 10.5-15 SPACE UNDER 3-YEAR AVERAGE The single most important social phenomenon in today’s Warsaw is CONSTRUCTION (M 2) DEMAND (M2) 75,800 184,300 the process of evictions caused by wild reprivatization that followed BUILDINGS UNDER CONSTRUCTION AND PLANNED Building Address Developer GLA (m ) Penta Investments the regime change of 1989. Many properties were given back to their Spectra Development Hines Polska pre - 2nd World War owners, who had been dispossessed in 1945. In LARGEST TRANSACTIONS 2014-2017 Building Tenant Area (m ) Deal type some cases reprivatisation was a swindle and was based on counter- Konstruktorska Business Center PZU new deal Marynarska Business Park Netia renegotiation expansion + Astra Zeneca feit documents or legal tricks. Literally tens of thousands of residents