Kielce's Bermuda Triangle will become history. Situated in the center of the city, the attractive but much-neglected area has been intensively built up for more than a dozen years. The last part of the triangle will be developed under the provisions of the "lex developer" law , allowing a developer to build a building higher than allowed by the development plan.
The triangle is the area between al. IX Wieków Kielc, which is the main artery of the downtown, and Pelca, Silnicza and Piotrkowska streets. Until the 1960s, tenement buildings stood in this place. Since its demolition in connection with the "cleaning up" of the Kielce ghetto area, the empty square has been used as a place to station amusement parks. In 2003, the City of Kielce implemented a local zoning plan for the area "Kielce-Śródmieście-Obszar 1-Aleja IX Wieków Kielce, Piotrkowska, Mojżesza Pelca, Silniczna I Cicha". One of its objectives was to supplement the development and eliminate the gap in the downtown development in this area.
Bermuda Triangle and Apollo Bulvar
© UM Kielce
Some of the city's plots have been sold. In 2017, construction of the first building on the site (named Ventus) began, and a year later the first shovel was driven in on the Apollo Split site. The already completed buildings and the planned one are united by a common investor , Apolloplast Inwestycje, and the designer , Kielce-based Tera Group. The resulting successive stages of development are partly stylized as townhouses to break up the scale of the buildings. On the side of the main al. IX Wieków Kielc this procedure was not necessary, and the dark block of Ventus is maintained in a uniform style.
Apollo Bulvar
© UM Kielce
The last part of the triangle will also be filled with buildings by the same designers. The plot of 1,200 sq. m. Apolloplast was purchased in January 2020. Three years later, the Kielce City Council, under the so-called "lex developer" law, agreed to fill it with a building a floor above the parameters allowed by the local plan. The developer's representatives explained that such a procedure would allow the two existing buildings to be harmoniously connected and link the new development to their heights. The building, named Apollo Bulvar, located along Piotrkowska Street, will house about a hundred apartments, retail and service units and a small underground parking lot.
Apollo Bulvar
© UM Kielce
However, the planned elevation of the development was larger. The conservator of monuments did not agree to two additional floors. In the second attempt, the investor modified the project, removing the disputed floor. A positive decision by councilors was not prevented by a negative opinion on the investment issued by the Municipal Urban Planning and Architectural Commission. Its members drew attention to the arrangement of commercial premises not at street level, but at mezzanine level, and to the insufficient size of the residential units, which will most likely be used for short-term rentals. The area of most of them fluctuates around 30 sqm. There will be another, much more intimate development next door at 14 Piotrkowska Street, also designed by the Tera Group studio.
© Tera Group
