The event opened with remarks from Søren Rodian Olsen, Managing Director of Logicenters Poland at Nrep and master of ceremonies of the conference. He reminded the audience that the ’80s were full of cinematic visions of what lay ahead: futuristic cities, AI-powered robots, brave underdogs taking on powerful empires. “All these kinds of things seem to come back today,” he noted. But the true meaning of the conference theme, he said, lies in its deeper message: changing what was done in the past to make the future better. “We’re here to talk about the past and the present in Poland – and most importantly, about the future,” Olsen concluded, setting the tone for a day of forward-looking conversation.

Next, Grzegorz Sielewicz, the head of economic and market insights at Colliers set the stage for the next panel with the current economic outlook. Unsurprisingly, he had much to say about the recently declared US tariffs and the economic instability they cause. Nonetheless, he was not about to tell us about impending doom and gloom. Indeed, Sielewicz was to announce that the Polish economy was first in Europe whose Purchasing Manager’s Index had climbed over 50, officially marking a period of recovery from the pandemic- although, he did admit that this could be partially down to the rush to export goods to the US before tariffs were to hit.  He also bemoaned the high price of energy, a point that had also been made by Marcin Piątkowski who had called on Poland to build five nuclear power plants instead of just the one currently planned. With inflation below 5%, he believes that interest rates are ready to be cut. Despite everything, Sielewicz remained optimistic, though warned that Germany’s flat GDP growth was cause for concern, since it is Poland’s biggest trading partner accounting for 27% of exports.

Doris Pittlinger, advisor to Newport/Panattoni Funds asked the question, “Will we see a new world order?” Pessimistically, she doesn’t expect huge international capital flows for two to three years. She pointed out that the US had backed down from the worst of the tariffs due to the economic damage wrought back home remarking that “In Germany, we say you shouldn’t eat it as hot as you cook it.” However, Josef Malíř, MD of Star Capital Finance, seemed far more upbeat. “Czechs like Central Europe,” he explained “If Western Europe won’t fill the hole Czechs will be happy to fill the gap,” he added although he also did admit, “I am paid to be an optimist.”

He was followed up on the stage by Sophie Chick, vice president of ESG Programmes at ULI Europe. She pointed out that 77% of investors agree that ESG impacts real estate pricing and that 76% believe that current valuations do not reflect climate change. Moreover 94% stated that transition risks have factored in their decisions.  She talked of a carbon mispricing bubble with ecologically-savvy investors divesting assets at inflated prices to investors with less knowledge and she mentioned the need for tools to level the playing field, such as the Preserve tool she advocated. At this point, Bradford Dockser returned to the stage. One of his first comments was now that most people had moved beyond the term ESG, stating that these were all complex issues that had been bundled together and were best dealt with separately. He also stated that despite the US federal government’s attempts to reverse all environmental rules, it could not and that such regulations are being introduced in the US on the state and municipal level, with cities even applying punitive fines.

Anna Chmielewska, associate director at EBRD, pointed out that data centres will be built in Poland despite electricity prices because of geopolitical and cyber security reasons. She mentioned that large amounts of EU money were being poured into strengthening the grid, but the challenge was to use this money to accommodate non-traditional forms of power generation. Tomasz Mrowczyk, co-managinf partner of Griffin Capital Partners, stated that his firm had invested in wind and solar energy, but he pointed out that the electricity generating business was different from the real estate business, because you couldn’t lease out a facility for 30 years. As an asset land was not an issue, but the bigger problem was access to the grid. But Griffin is bullish and sees opportunities to invest throughout the sector. However, electricity prices on the open market are highly volatile changing every 15 minutes, so if investors wish to avoid risk, they need to contractually sign up a customer.

After lunch, another architect took to the stage – Signe Kongebro, global director of Future Resilient Design at Ramboll. “Cities are where the climate battle is to be lost and won,” she declared, setting the tone for a presentation that looked boldly into the future of urban development. For Kongebro, cities are not just population centres – they are living ecosystems that must be reimagined to meet the urgent demands of climate resilience and social cohesion.

Drawing on the example of Copenhagen, she explained how the city had successfully reinvented itself, transforming its once-industrial docks into thriving, liveable neighbourhoods. She underscored the importance of green infrastructure – not just in visual terms, but in biodiversity outcomes. “Lilacs may be beautiful,” she said, “but they offer little to urban biodiversity. Planting oaks and other native species can do far more.”

Living longer through urban development

She stayed on the stage for the next panel on urban development which was moderated by Jack Renteria, CEO, Generation Global and the chair of ULI Denmark. He praised the previous presentation as “one of the freshest I have seen in a very, very long time.” Whitney Austen Gray, senior vice president of Research at International  WELL Building Institute pointed out how life expectancy in Poland was 77 years. This is five years more than in Russia, but five years less than in Germany. Human longevity is seriously impacted by healthy environments. “Health is the one thing you can’t live without,” she said and added, “it is critical that health is a part of your project.” Sebastian Kieć, CEO of AFI Poland talked of the Towarowa 22 project in Warsaw, which is being developed in a joint venture with Echo Investment and Archicom. He declared that it “will be one of the most beautiful parts of the city.”

Moments later, he handed the floor to Łukasz Platkowski, managing director at Gensler Berlin. He joked that by moving to Berlin from Warsaw he had extended his life by five years. He pointed out that offices could be converted from offices to offices. “Sometimes we’re not converting offices into housing or hotels – were simply reinventing offices to meet today’s expectations. Its about transforming outdated layouts, upgrading systems, and creating spaces that support hybrid work, well-being, and sustainability. In that sense, yes  – were doing conversions from office to office.” – he said.
He added that offices could also be converted into apartments. Old retail centres could be converted into cultural destinations where people want to go. Logistics centres were also being converted to film studios. Often office conversions to apartments are prevented because not every building is suitable and hiring the consultants to find out may be expensive. Gensler has created a tool to quickly assess if such a conversion can be carried out and nine out of ten buildings can be. He finished off his presentation by quoting Abraham Lincoln: “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

With the end of the conference, the world seemed far more dicey than it had ever been before but it also appeared to be a more exciting place filled with hitherto unimagined opportunities.

In closing, Marcin Juszczyk, ULI Poland Chair expressed sincere thanks to all distinguished guests, speakers, and participants – both local and international – for sharing their valuable and diverse perspectives and stated that “I am quite confident that with our army of Jedis from ULI, we have the intelectual power and the courage to make the world a better place for new generations.”