An Irish company is fast becoming one of Europe's leading developers. Jack Fagan reports from Bratislava on the firm's latest coup, a major mixed-use complex in Slovakia

Almost a decade after its first foray into central Europe, Ballymore Properties has made a major breakthrough with the announcement that it is to finance and build a substantial new riverfront district in the Slovakian capital city of Bratislava.

More than €250 million is to be spent on the development of the first phase of the mixed-use scheme, including the country's largest shopping centre, which is set to become the new commercial hub of the city.

The highly acclaimed Bratislava project is only one of a string of development opportunities assembled by Sean Mulryan's company since it started investing in central Europe in 1995. The company has since pumped more than €100 million into mainly commercial properties with redevelopment potential and well located development sites in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. The company's substantial property interests in the region are looked after by full-time technical and management personnel in offices in Prague, Bratislava and Budapest.

In the past year, the leading economist, Dr Peter Bacon, a main board director of Ballymore Properties, was given executive responsibility for the management and development of the company's central European business. Group finance director, Brian Fagan, also has a senior role in the emerging property markets.

In Prague, a key site has been acquired on Wenceslas Square in one of the oldest parts of the city centre where development work is due to begin in the next 18 months on a 60,000sq m (645,850sq ft) scheme that will include a mixture of offices, shopping and homes. The company's first project in the city involved the refurbishment of a historical building to create a 7,000sq m (75,348sq ft) commercial centre.

It also has sites for two village projects between Prague city and the airport. The Statenice project, due for completion in 2007, will create 32 villas, 50 apartments, a village square, shopping, restaurants, public gardens and a lake. The second site of 380 acres at Lichoceves has been earmarked for a village centre and 5,000 new homes.

In Budapest, Ballymore is gearing up to develop a mixed-use scheme on an equally large scale to Bratislava. A well located 80-hectare site close to Budapest's main railway station, Nyugati, and the Parliament building, has been targeted for a large shopping centre, office complex, leisure facilities and housing.

The Bratislava project will be the largest ever undertaken by a private developer in Slovakia with a floor area in the first phase alone of more than 230,000sq m (almost 2.5 million sq ft). The 34 acres running from the historic town centre to the vast Danube river is acknowledged as one of the best located in any eastern European city. It will extend the city on to the second longest river in Europe.

Many leading political and business leaders in Slovakia - including the Lord Mayor of Bratislava, Andrej Durkovsky, and the Governor of the Central Bank, Ivan Sramko - attended last week's official launch of the Eurovea International Trade Centre in Bratislava City Hall, a classical 18th century palace with its famous hall of mirrors.

The Ballymore representation was headed by the chairman, Sean Mulryan, and by Dr Bacon. Ballymore brought together an international team of architects to design what is being planned as a vibrant new urban area for half a million citizens. The city is about half an hour's drive from Vienna.

The initial phase of the complex will have 40,000sq m (430,560sq ft) of shopping on three levels to accommodate 150 shop units as well as 12 anchors ranging in size mainly from 1,500sq m (16,146sq ft) to 4,000sq m (43,056sq ft).

More than 40 per cent of the space has already been committed to leading European traders, according to Ballymore's marketing director in central Europe, Mike de Mug, who expects the balance of the retail area to be leased at least six months before the centre opens in 2009. The complex is to be held as a long term investment by Ballymore and, depending on rental negotiations, should have a rent roll of at least €20 million.

The scheme will also include a five star 200-bedroom hotel which a leading American hotel chain is already in discussions to lease. The city, noted for its history, culture and baroque palaces, has been attracting an ever-increasing number of tourists from neighbouring countries despite a serious shortage of hotel bedrooms.

There will also be 23,000sq m (247,572sq ft) of office space in the new centre which is likely to be of interest to a range of international finance and information technology companies looking at Slovakia since the government introduced a flat income tax rate of 19 per cent.

An eight-screen multiplex cinema, an IMAX theatre and a health and fitness facility will also be available for letting.

The first phase will also include 250 apartments overlooking the Danube and, despite huge interest in them (not least from many of Slovakia's famous ice hockey stars based in the US and some of the country's supermodels who work in Europe), they are not to be released for sale until the other elements of the scheme are completed.

The Ballymore site will also include a large public square fronting the national theatre, a linear park, docking facilities to cater for tourist boats from neighbouring countries and 1,700 car-parking spaces at two underground levels.

The second phase of the development, due to get under way about 18 months after construction begins on the site, is expected to include a business centre and about 900 apartments.

Bratislava city council's decision to endorse Ballymore's state-of-the-art designs for what is the most crucial development site in the city came after officials acquainted themselves with the company's highly successful rejuvenation projects in the London docklands. It is now the second largest landowner in the docklands after Canary Wharf plc, and later this autumn will begin construction of Europe's two tallest residential towers at Millharbour, just east of Canary Wharf.

The two interlinking towers will stand 36 storeys and 50 storeys, reaching a height of 170 metres (560ft). The first tranche of apartments is expected to be offered for sale in the coming months.