Hungarian construction company TriGranit will spend EUR 1.5bn to build Europe’s biggest shopping and entertainment centre near Bratislava, TriGranit development director Simon Bayley said at a press conference in the Slovakian capital on Tuesday.
The 1.2m-square-metre shopping and entertainment centre, dubbed Metropolis, will have a water park, golf courses, hotels, casinos and cultural and conference centres, Mr Bayley said.
Construction will start at the end of 2010 and the complex will be completed in several phases. The first phase, to include the shopping and entertainment centre, water park, three hotels and a casino, is expected to be completed by 2012. The entire project is to take five years to build.
Metropolis will be built on a 30-hectare plot south of Bratislava, near motorways connecting to Vienna, Budapest and Prague. The complex is expected to draw 5m-6m tourists every six months, Mr Bayley said.
Harrah’s will be one of Metropolis’s main operators. The company operates Ceasars Palace in Las Vegas and the Emerald Casino Resort in South Africa.
TriGranit is financing the project together with Harrah’s, Mr Bayley said, answering a question. He declined to reveal any further details.
TriGranit has invested more than EUR 200m in Slovakia thus far, completing developments with a combined area of more than 200,000 square metres. The company is present in seven countries in the region where it has completed projects worth EUR 2bn.