More than three decades after construction got underway, Kraków’s only high-rise structure has yet to be completed. Having been name after a cartoon villian by Krakowians  years ago, “Skeletor” may finally have taken a step toward completion. 

Verity Development and Kraków-based developer GD&K Group have come forward with a new €100m scheme based on the original 1968 concept for transforming the eyesore into a mini-Manhattan. 

The new project, now being called TreiMorfa, involves the construction of five additional buildings offering office and residential along with a hotel. The 102.5-meter tower will be the project’s dominant feature, while the other buildings will not exceed 45 meters in height. The investors are currently  fighting objections from local environment groups about the validity of the conditions of development, but they hope a local appeals court will officially overturn the environmentalists’ objections by the end of June. This would pave the way for them to secure a construction permit by early 2011.

The 60,000 sqm development will have a boulevard running between the towers linking them to the Mogilskie roundabout, an important city junction. Adam Mikuliński, project manager at Verity Development, says the 30,000 sqm first phase, involving the tower and a smaller neighboring building could be slated for completion by 2013 at the earliest.

“The exhibition and congress premises at the top of the tower will provide a unique view of [Kraków’s] 13th-century street layout and the Tatra mountains,” says Marek Dunikowski, the project’s architect from DDJM Studio. He claims that while the the tower’s steel structure is intact, other supporting elements will likely have to be replaced and may present a serious challenge for the investors. 

Kraków’s chief architect Andrzej Wyżykowski, who was involved in the tower’s original design 42 years ago, says he is satisfied, “since the investor, with its feasible project, gives the city a chance to rid itself of the reputation as the city which builds ‘skeletons’.”

“This is the only building of its kind in the city, and it’s in a very central location, so it’s a prestigious place for a company to lease space and place its logo,” says Henryk Gaertner, a member of the board of directors at GD&K. He estimates the rents for TreiMorfa will be higher than in other central locations, where they currently range from €14 to €15. Gaertner says his team will be targeting financial and insurance companies.