Formerly the Gdansk-Wrzeszcz airport operated at the site, and after its closure extensive services were planned to be built there. The southern part of the runway in Gdansk is getting new life after decades of stagnation, up to about a thousand apartments are to be built here.
The plots of the former runway in Gdansk's Zaspa district have been splitting the Zaspa-Młyniec area in half for years. Since 1919, the Gdańsk-Wrzeszcz Airport operated at the site, but was closed in 1974 to make way for a new housing development for 50,000 residents. At the time, Roman Horodyński, Rudolf Buchalik, Stefan Grochowski, Teresa Opic, Aniela Wilk, Edmund Sergot and Ryszard Musiał were responsible for the design of the greenery- and service-filled blocks of flats, which was selected in a nationwide competition.
While the northern part of the former runway lived to see new residential and commercial development (the Aviator and City Park estates were built), the southern part was marred. Back in the 1990s, the Treasury sold a five-hectare site between Rzeczypospolitej Avenue and Franciszka Hynka Street to the German commercial group Edeka. And although the local plan included a service center, the company never started work. The neglected site bisected the neighborhood, and for a while a local market and parking lot operated here.
Zaspa. The airport operated on this site until 1974.
Ewa Karendys
Design by Studio Kwadrat and Wolski Architects
Much changed only in 2015 when the site was bought for a net price of 46.4 million zlotys by Budimex Nieruchomości, now called Spravia. Later that year, the developer selected the development's design in a closed architectural competition. The winning studio was Studio Kwadrat from Gdynia (cooperation: Wolski Architekci), known for such projects as the Museum of World War II, Brabank, or the residential and commercial complex in the Granaria development on Granary Island.
This form of investment allows for the shaping of resident-friendly public space. The winning concept is an attempt to return to traditional urban planning with the character of quarter development," Wieslaw Bielawski, then deputy mayor of Gdansk, commented on the results of the competition.
Initially, a group of residents protested against the development of the runway, demanding that the parameters of the development be reduced. It was also necessary to change the local zoning plan for a part of the area where former city planners envisioned a service function. The new plan, passed in 2022, calls for residential and commercial development of up to seven stories. In the remaining area, development of 5 to 6 stories is allowed, and in the southern part - directly on Hynka Street - up to 18 stories. In the northern part, on Startowa Street, a local increase in development up to 13 overground floors was allowed.
Runway developed with apartments
A total of as many as 1,100 apartments may be built. The plan calls for ground-floor commercial units, as well as a plaza and passageways to facilitate movement through the district.
Several years ago Spravia built the first two buildings
Ewa Karendys
The first two buildings have already been built. In 2021. Spravia handed over two buildings located on the side of the Gdańsk-Zaspa SKM station, comprising 288 apartments and 11 commercial units. Although they are 55 meters high, they correctly fit into the immediate neighborhood. Now the investor is preparing the next stage, and other investors are also trying to develop the strip, as Spravia has decided to sell part of the area to two developers.
- Development of the entire area would be too time- and capital-intensive for one entity. Therefore, we have been looking for alternative solutions that would allow multi-family development on the entire former runway. Recall that the MPZP clearly indicates that only residential, multi-family development should be built on the site," says Andrzej Miś, spokesman for Spravia.
As part of the Zaspa Wygodnie investment, Spravia will build two six-story buildings with 226 apartments. Contrary to the investor's earlier announcements during the first consultations with residents, the name of the development will not allude to the neighborhood's aviation past.
On the facades, the architects have planned a light color scheme - beiges, whites and grays. The designers intend to give lightness to the blocks by the retracted top floors and arcades in the first floors, behind which there will be commercial and retail premises. The completion date is summer 2027.
The Zaspa Conveniently estate will be built on a former runway in Zaspa.
© Spravia
Other investors are preparing to build: Zaspa Project - the company behind which is developer Robyg - and A.Z. Development. In both cases, the City issued permits for the construction of multi-family residential buildings with services, but the decisions were appealed.
