Were there post offices, will there be galleries? Mikosz: They will help reduce maintenance costs

Poczta Polska has started the implementation of the Galerie Poczty Polska (GPP) project, which envisages the commercialization of real estate belonging to the company, which is intended to reduce their maintenance costs – Sebastian Mikosz, president of Poczta Polska, told PAP on Monday.

According to the information provided by the company, in the first stage of the GPP project implementation, 32 buildings with historic values, located in city centers, were selected for commercialization: in Bydgoszcz, Toruń and Poznań. The facilities intended for commercialization will remain in the resources of Poczta Polska and will not be sold.

In the opinion of the management board of Poczta Polska, all these properties have “great potential for business use”. At the same time – as the company's president, Sebastian Mikosz, pointed out – these are only some of the properties in its resources that are attractive as places to conduct business activities unrelated to postal services.

– We are the owners of beautiful city-building buildings located in city centers. So far, we have treated them only as places for postal services. However, the post office is changing, we have excess space – which everyone can see – as well as the need for additional investment – noted President Mikosz in an interview with PAP.

In the opinion of the president of Poczta Polska, the development of unused space will not only reduce the company's costs, but will also turn postal buildings into local attractions. As inspiration, he mentioned the Powiśle Power Plant and the Norblin Factory in Warsaw and the Stara Papiernia in Konstancin, former industrial facilities that today have a commercial, catering and entertainment character.

– Our goal is to break even. We are a commercial company, our goal is to make money, but we understand that these buildings are suboptimal from a cost point of view. Therefore, not contributing to their maintenance is a sufficient mission for us at this moment, he said.

Mikosz stated that Poczta Polska would like to find “preferably one partner” specializing in real estate management with whom it would implement the GPP project. He emphasized that Monday's presentation should be treated as an “invitation to talks.”

– We would like to be able to show the first effects in the first year (of the GPP project – PAP). We also really want the authorities of the cities where these facilities are located to feel co-responsible for this project, because it is about being useful to the local community. Cooperation with presidents and mayors is fundamental. They have needs that we don't know about. (…) The post office is open to making this space available – he noted.

During the presentation of the program, Mikosz pointed out that some post offices occupy buildings of up to several thousand square meters, and 300 meters are used for postal activities, so the Post Office incurs disproportionately high costs of maintaining these buildings.

According to information from Poczta Polska, the company has a total of over 2 million square meters of usable space, which it will gradually release in the part not used for operational activities for commercialization purposes on a lease or lease basis. The post office has launched a website: www.motywosci.poczta-polska.pl, where it presents facilities intended for commercialization.

Poczta Polska is the national operator; delivers letters, parcels, pensions and money orders to Polish residents; it also operates on the market of communication and logistics services. The company employs 51 thousand. employees, has 7.6 thousand branches in the country. It delivers 800 million letters and 80 million parcels annually. (PAP)

gkc/mmu/