Budapest: from the stock exchange palace, a UNESCO site will be a shopping center

Prague - A former building of the Budapest Stock Exchange will be transformed into a shopping and entertainment center. The developer of the project is Orco Property Group. The company has obtained a building permit and commenced reconstruction. Orco announced this in a press release. The amount of the investment was not disclosed by the company.
The developer plans to open the center in the spring of 2010. Once the reconstruction is completed, the building will have more than 11,000 square meters of retail, dining, and entertainment space. Orco acquired the former stock exchange center in 2006.
The original building of the Budapest Stock Exchange was constructed between 1911 and 1915, designed by Hungarian architect Ignác Alpar. As it has been on UNESCO's World Heritage list since 1933, it is subject to heritage protection laws.
Orco Property Group has been active in the Central European real estate market since 1991. Shares of this Luxembourg company are traded on exchanges in Prague, Warsaw, Budapest, and Paris. The real estate consulting company DTZ estimates the value of the firm's portfolio at 2.4 billion euros (approximately 61 billion crowns). In addition to the Czech Republic, the group operates in Hungary, Poland, Russia, Croatia, Germany, and Slovakia.