Galeria Echo in Kielce has won a prize in the prestigious MAPIC Awards competition that accompanied the biggest commercial property fair in Cannes, France. The shopping centre developed by Echo Investment won in the ‘Best Refurbished Retail Development’ category.

“On behalf of Echo Investment I would like to thank everyone for this great award. Thank you for all the votes cast for Galeria Echo and all the votes cast for Poland. Winning such a prestigious competition proves that the Polish retail market is in excellent condition and confirms the stability of our economy. I would also like to thank all our partners, in particular the retailers, this project could not have been developed without you,” said Marcin Materny, Foreign Shopping Centre Department Director at Echo Investment while receiving the award in Cannes.

Several dozen projects were entered for this year’s MAPIC AWARDS competition. Galeria Echo turned out to be the best in the ‘Best Refurbished Retail Development’ category and was accompanied by the best retail projects from all over the world. Votes for Galeria Echo were cast by members of the international jury and fair participants.

Galeria Echo competed with two equally unique projects: Milano City Center in Milano, Italy and The Style Outlets in Zweibrücken, Germany in the ‘Best Refurbished Retail Development’ category. Galeria Echo was the only Polish project in all the categories to be nominated for this prestigious award.

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MAPIC is one of the biggest and most important commercial property fairs in the world. There are over 1,000 exhibitors participating in the event, including: developers, architects and representatives of big retail chains, global brands, cinema chains and real estate agencies. In total MAPIC 2011 will be visited by nearly 8,000 people from 67 countries.

More information about the fair is available at: www.mapic.com