The Nove Nivy zone in Bratislava will include a project from world-renowned architects
The Nové Nivy zone is alive. In a few years, Bratislava residents will be able to enjoy a new bus station, a new Mlynské Nivy boulevard, additional transport solutions, parking facilities and, of course, new office and business projects. All this will be provided by Nové Nivy, the new quarter in Bratislava that will become the heart of the city from the business, transport, and leisure points of view.
New project in the Nové Nivy zone
The corner of Mlynské Nivy and Košická Street will see the emergence of a new urban structure that was designed with an emphasis on creating a functional public space, defined by the natural movement of people. The new city quarter will be energized by a public area as big as the Main Square, a small park, a ground floor with many services and a venue for events of various kinds. The space will serve the whole neighbourhood, not just this project. The zone will thus acquire a community character and will provide opportunities for the development of creative as well as traditional business, working as an engine for job creation.
The square will be surrounded by several multifunctional buildings that will change how people view the work environment in Bratislava and create a new, healthy and motivating space for the future users’ daily activities both indoors as well as outdoors on the terraces.
The concept was designed by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, the third-largest British architectural studio and the winner of the 2015 Stirling Prize, awarded by the Royal Institute of British Architects, with the support of the British specialists in the psychology and behaviour of people in city structures from Space Syntax.
The construction of the complex will be completed in two phases. It will take approximately five years and provide the Nové Nivy zone with a new natural centre with a square. The dominant feature of the project will be a tower located directly on the corner of Mlynské Nivy and Košická Street. The completion of the individual project buildings is planned from 2020 to 2023. The investment project was approved in May 2017 and HB Reavis is going to submit a request for an environmental impact assessment in the coming weeks.
While Stanica Nivy will be the transport and shopping centre of the Nové Nivy zone, this project will be the centre of business and urban lifestyle. Large companies and smaller start-ups will meet in several buildings. The new concept of the work environment will ensure the right mix of different business communities, resulting in a strong synergy between successful established companies and start-ups that will attract other young talented people to Nové Nivy.
Attached to this press release are the first visualisations of the planned project.
Twin City Tower in operation from 2018
Less than a year before completion, HB Reavis announces 3/4 occupancy of the Twin City Tower. Besides tenants from the leasing, energy and chemistry sectors, a major international technology company will also be one of the main tenants. The tenants will start using the tower, which is part of the Twin City complex, in the fall of 2018.
Other buildings within Twin City:
The remaining parts of the complex also had full occupancy before completion, e.g. Twin City B, which is occupied mainly by the international insurance company Swiss Re, and Twin City C, which will be occupied by companies such as Sygic, SAP, Accace, CRIF, and Yangfeng, as well as the headquarters of HB Reavis Group.
Stanica Nivy
The construction of the project started in May of this year with the Nivy Tower, the future highest office building in Slovakia, which is part of the Stanica Nivy project. After completing a new temporary bus station on Bottova Street, HB Reavis began demolishing the old one. The demolition work will be completed in the following weeks. Excavation work and removal of building rubble will follow. The opening of the new Stanica Nivy bus station is planned for 2020.
Stanica Nivy – Smart City
On March 6, 2017, HB Reavis Group asked the government of the Slovak Republic to grant a significant investment status to its project “Stanica Nivy – Smart City.” The aim is to build Stanica Nivy and the surrounding related projects in such a way as to efficiently connect this major traffic junction to the urban agglomeration on the opposite bank of the Danube.
The investment plan “Stanica Nivy – Smart City” consists of a combination of several office projects, transport service projects, public infrastructure, a new bus station, a shopping centre, and an additional transport solution. In the coming years, the company plans to gradually invest more than €1 billion in Bratislava, including more than €180 million for the construction of public infrastructure. In addition to office and commercial space, this investment will improve Bratislava’s infrastructure significantly. The city will get a new impetus for economic growth, a space for the development of the economy and job creation opportunities.
HB Reavis does not ask for financial incentives and wants to implement the projects without state participation. However, the significant investment status can help streamline the administrative processes while constructing the new quarter.
“Considering the amount of more than €1 billion that we plan to invest in the Nivy zone and the adjacent locations, we’ve decided to make use of this option to effectively reduce the process of building a new city district. We especially want to ensure the observance of the statutory deadlines in the proceedings related to the construction and the effective use of the time and resources we invest in Bratislava. We are not interested in obtaining any financial incentives,” said Adrián Rác, CEO of HB Reavis Slovakia.
Mlynské Nivy – a new Bratislava boulevard
Part of the wider context of the developer’s projects in the Nivy zone is the complete reconstruction of the transport and technical infrastructure of Mlynské Nivy and the adjacent communications. Full reconstruction costs are estimated at €24 million.
This investment will create a new boulevard with a renewed infrastructure, an underground roundabout, safe pedestrian crossings, cycle paths, bus stops, new pavements and greenery. HB Reavis is awaiting the completion of the authorisation process for these projects. Therefore, the commencement date of the renovation work is not yet known.
Parking houses on both banks of the Danube
In addition to the cable car as an innovative and environmentally-friendly complementary means of transport, the company also offers the construction of parking houses on both banks of the Danube. This ambition is in line with the new parking policy of the capital and the efforts to reduce the number of cars in the city centre. The solution has the ambition to help the residents, students and regional and international bus passengers better reach both current and future destination locations in the capital.
“Large-scale parking buildings connected to the final stops of the cable car which would be potentially integrated into the public transport system have the potential to effectively ease the junctions and local communications. During the preliminary negotiations, we were met with understanding and positive responses at all levels. These solutions do not have the ambition to solve the city’s backbone transport infrastructure, but they can definitely help on the local level,” explains Rác.
