Advices provided by Jacek Tokarski, Partner, Senior Investment Analyst, Hotel Professionals.

To adequately assess the predispositions of a parcel/lands for hotel development one should consider:

•    Location in macro scale: the biggest cities in Poland, in particular Warsaw, Cracow, Gdynia, Wroclaw, but also many other cities with population exceeding 100,000 citizens. Demand for lands outside cities is close to zero.
•    Location in micro scale: first building line, comfortable driveway from major streets, demand boosters nearby, i.e., large groups of office buildings, SEZ (a special economic zone), and additional advantages, such as closeness to the Old Town, tourist attractions.
•    In larger cities parcels for all category hotels are popular, apart from luxury hotels. In smaller cities mostly for budget objects.
•    Size: optimum, if on a land one can build a hotel of 4500-6000 sq mts, and for larger cities even to 12,000 sq mts. A parcel should not be significantly larger than the minimum required for construction of a building. If tower-block housing is permitted, then the profitable hotel investment in a budget sector on such parcel is hardly possible.
•    Site development. Parcel at urban areas usually meet the basic requirements on media, i.e., water supply, sewage system, fast Internet, telephone lines. On the one hand, the provision of the electric energy junction from two independent sources can pose a problem. On the other, the possibility to join the city’s district heating.