THE SLOVAK Investment and Trade Development Agency (SARIO) plans to complete its strategy on the renewal of Slovakia’s brownfield industrial sites by the end of the summer, the SITA wrote.
Currently, the agency lists about 400 industrial brownfield sites in Slovakia, of which about 300 have been already included in its strategy, said SARIO’s Viktor Wiedermann on the discussion forum of the web-magazine Stavebné fórum.sk (Construction forum). Most brownfield sites are in Žilina Region (100), followed by Prešov (64), Banská Bystrica (64), and Košice Regions (58).
The largest number of these sites in Slovakia, according to Wiedermann, were originally used for agricultural purposes. “From preliminary results, these brownfield sites make up about 33 percent,” Wiedermann said. Others are old municipal buildings, former industrial parks, and ex-military sites.
“So far, it appears that 41 percent of these brownfield sites are privately owned, and the rest are public property,” Wiedermann added. According to him, 21 percent of them are in a neglected state.
According to Wiedermann, SARIO now also offers industrial parks to potential investors. “However, investors prefer to construct their factories on Greenfield sites,” Wiedermann said.
Brownfield sites have many disadvantages, but also advantages, said Ľubomír Liška of the Hrivis developer company. “Their biggest advantage is that they are usually located on a very good site, in top locations,” Liška explained. “On the other hand, the biggest drawback is that the investor often does not know what lies under the old building, or what state it is in, because it is not possible to make a full analysis during the purchase of property.”
