Last summer, the state bought the lands of the Winter Port for 165 million euros and grouped them under the state enterprise Public Ports. The goal was to renovate the port, including Pálenisk, but a few months after that, Economy Minister Denisa Saková (Hlas) announced that the government had signed a cooperation agreement with the Emirates. Its essence was supposed to be the construction of a new cargo port and the transformation of the Winter Port into a residential zone, which will be paid for by the UAE.
The terms of the contract are not yet known, but the estimated amount needed for the creation of the massive project is – 1.25 billion euros. The new part of Bratislava will take most of the budget, one billion. The remaining 250 million will be used to start the shipping port. It applies that the state will have control over the territory.
Photo: Tomáš Písečný
winter harbor source Tomas Pisecny Pictured is Winter Harbor.
Already six years ago, the Metropolitan Institute of Bratislava (MIB) was aware that the 65-hectare area of the Winter Port is one of the last areas where the capital can still grow. He also prepared a development plan, but it did not move – the state itself does not have the funds to implement it. The current project in cooperation with SAE makes it possible to expand the historic center and also the new one around Mlynské Nív on a huge area that is in direct contact with the river.
The investor should complete the first phase in seven to ten years from the end of the competition. The basis of the port district will be its original industrial character – several cranes and technological tools are protected monuments and must be preserved.
Winter Harbor picked up speed
Right before the first round of the architectural competition in the form of the Winter Port, Minister Ráž was at a meeting with the Emirati party. It is so obvious that the state does not plan to delay in building a port with Dubai’s money. “We addressed the improvement of the economic situation and cooperation between our countries, but the main topic was the port of Bratislava. That’s how our delegation was composed, which included the management of the Public Ports and certain people from the ministry, so that we could react really quickly,” summed up the head of the department.
The construction of port housing is approaching fast by Slovakia’s standards. The MIB, which covers the development of Bratislava and the international competition for the port, announced the high interest of registered architectural studies in the announced competition. The institute accepted 123 proposals from 33 countries, among them, in addition to Slovak studios, also studio projects from the Czech Republic, Great Britain, Germany and Italy. “We should find out the result of the competition in the fall,” said the minister.
The jury consists of seven regular members and four alternates. It will mainly include world-class foreign names – Czech architects and urban planners Michal Sedláček and Linda Obršálová, British urban planner Catherine Burd, Dutch chief urban planner of Amsterdam Paco Bunnik, German architect Gerd Jäger and Slovak urban planners, as well as professional guarantor Peter Gero and urban planner Martin Závracký.
General Director of Public Ports, Matej Danóci, said that the number of proposals shows that the Winter Port has huge international potential. “We believe that the right urban planning solution can open this space for people, create new functions and quality of public spaces, and at the same time work sensitively with the port’s history,” he added.
After the evaluation of the competition in the third quarter of the year, the initial visualizations will be presented to the public. So far, however, the MIB has not communicated what the public can expect in the area. In addition to apartments and offices or shops, there will also be a marina for private boats. Sports grounds for water sports will be added to this, and as part of the benefit to Bratislava, the waterfront promenade will be extended. Today, it ends at the Eurovea shopping center, people can’t get any further and bypass the port.
A transformation worth a billion awaits him, contracts with the government of the Emirates have already been signed. It will thus become a new neighborhood with housing modeled after Germany or Denmark.
We have a developer, he also built the Burj Khalif
The investor who will change the shape of the port on the Danube is already known. This is the company Eagle Hills from the Emirates, which was designated as an investment partner for the Bratislava project by the government of the Arab country. He will also be the developer of the district.
“We had a very fruitful discussion about how they envision cooperation and how they could invest in this part, in the new center of Bratislava. We went through a lot of technical details,” said Minister Ráž without further specification. “We dealt with the new center of Bratislava with a smart manager who is 68 years old and built the Burj Khalifa and the Dubai Mall,” said Minister Mohamed Alabbar, founder of Emaar Properties and chairman of Eagle Hills.
Alabbar is considered one of the main developers of modern Dubai, as he built two architectural symbols of the city. However, there is no architect or construction manager who designed or built the Burj Khalifa. He is a developer who financed and implemented the project. The building itself was drawn by architect Adrian Smith from the SOM studio.
The Eagle Hills company already has experience in shaping European cities, thanks to which it gradually stabilized its influence on trade and the face of Europe – but it does not have a problem-free reputation. In Budapest, it was supposed to develop the Grand Budapest project, also nicknamed “Mini Dubai”, which expected an investment of approximately 12 billion euros. The result was to build a new city district with skyscrapers. Budapest provided the land, Eagle Hills the capital.
However, the project caused strong opposition from the city, urban planners and the public. They were worried about the traffic load under the onslaught of the new population, the lack of public control over construction and its financing. The mayor of Budapest also fought the project because the government was bypassing the city – Viktor Orbán’s cabinet finally backed down from the plan in February 2025.
Both the winter harbor and the harbor in Vlčom hrdl are industrial monuments of Bratislava. The new neighborhood project in Winter Harbor will preserve all of them.
The Department of Transport told Pravda that the cooperation agreement between Slovakia and the UAE has room for negotiations on strategic investments in the port of Bratislava and therefore the country will not be at a disadvantage. “Cooperation with a global leader will bring world-class know-how to this territory. The Ministry of Transport of the Slovak Republic guarantees maximum transparency in all steps. The entire project is designed to ensure long-term infrastructure development and fully protect the interests of the Slovak Republic,” said ministry spokeswoman Petra Poláčiková.
Raz insisted that the outcome of the meetings in the UAE would be a plan for the new quarter. “The group is thinking that, in cooperation with the city, it will also design one iconic building, which should attract a lot of people to Bratislava and thus also to Slovakia,” the minister emphasized the expectation of another skyscraper.
According to Eva Hapčová from MIB, high-rise buildings within the port can be built exclusively on the corner of Prístavná and Košická streets. Dubai investors are known for 200 to 300 meter towers, so it is possible that a building will be added, which will surpass the height of the only Slovak skyscraper so far, the Eurovea Tower. If the project plan does not fail.
The port has potential
Abu Dhabi Ports, which operates in ports worldwide, including in Europe, will be in charge of the restoration and operation of the port. “Abu Dhabi Ports has a number of industrial zones and intermodal ports. This is exactly what we want. The company could invest in the port, but mainly also operate it,” said the minister, adding that this project will also be implemented by an investor in cooperation with the state. “The state invests the existing port and the new company invests its know-how and its investments,” Ráž added.
The flow of the Danube in Bratislava connects ten countries and creates a water corridor between the Black Sea and Western Europe, a fact that Emirati investors and the government are also aware of. It enables the transportation of large volumes of goods cheaper and more ecologically than road transport, which is why the Bratislava part is so important. It is ideally connected to highways and the railway also passes through it, so it is a relatively specifically equipped node and an ideal location within the entire course of the Danube.
“Negotiations in the Emirates continue today, and in addition to several important investors, we also met with the Minister of Investments, Mohammed Alsuwaidi. The meeting with the Executive Director of Abu Dhabi Ports, Captain Mohammed Juma Al Shamsi, was also very important,” Ráž said on the social network.
According to Ráž, the multimodal port that can be created in our country should therefore be exceptional and there will not be many similar ones in European countries. “The project of a large modern port in Bratislava is doomed to success,” he noted, adding that the investor will increase the port’s capacity and at the same time attract new logistics customers.
However, the path to a new form of the Winter Harbor is not straightforward, as Slovak spatial plans are a nightmare for developers. Even the port zone will therefore not avoid waiting for a change in the spatial plan – however, it can be assumed that due to the interest of the government and the entry of the Emirates, the process will take place more quickly. It is necessary to finish the competition first. “After that, according to the urban study, there will be a change in the territorial plan and this territory will be ready for development, for that investment,” assessed Ráž.
The city of Bratislava is responsible for this step, with which the department, according to the minister, is in constant communication. The change of the territorial plan is timed to come simultaneously with the evaluation of the competition. “We are working together and effectively for the time being on the change of the territorial plan, which we could have sometime in the fall. During the international urban planning competition, we committed, within the framework of the Public Ports, that we will stick to its results,” he added.
At the same time, the Minister of Transport emphasized that the change in the territorial plan does not concern the part with the cargo port, it is in accordance with it. To move the Pálenisk, they only need building permits for individual nodes of the infrastructure.
