Port II

The port, from which the name came, was excavated in the interwar period on an old Vistula riverbed. Out of the planned five basins, three were built — and that is what remains today. Goods were transshipped here, ships stood here in winter, until the role was taken over by Port Żerański. A water station from around 1885 was also moored here, still in the seventies a berth for steamboats. It survived on the water until the night of 17 to 18 March 2012, when it caught fire — and that was essentially the end of the port history of this place.

Thirty-eight hectares remained between the railway embankment and Jagiellońska, Zamoyskiego and Okrzei. Opposite the Old Town, a stone's throw from the centre — and for decades almost nothing. Part of the land went to Elektrim after the construction of the Świętokrzyski bridge, the first buildings started in 2011 from the direction of Stara Praga. This is how this district is being created: not building by building, but by blocks, with a plan for a dozen or so years ahead.

What really changed was access to the centre. On 28 March 2024, Warsaw's first crossing exclusively for pedestrians and cyclists was opened — 452 metres, 154 million złoty instead of the planned 180. The footbridge descends from Karowa to Powiśle directly onto Okrzei, which is the Port Praski street. Nowy Świat ceased to be a transfer point and became a walk.

It is worth knowing what else is to be built here, because this is the most important question before purchase. The land plan includes not just apartments: separately listed are the Docks, Media Park and a part called City — with towers ranging from one hundred to one hundred sixty metres in height. Buyers therefore get two things at once: certainty that the neighbouring plot is not a mystery, and awareness that for the coming years they will be living next to a construction site. Marina and full boulevards are for now a plan, not an address.

The rest is already Praga, which you cannot see on the map: Ząbkowska and Koneser for an evening walk instead of a trip, Bazar Różyckiego two blocks further — Julian Różycki bought this land in 1874, and the marketplace was officially opened in 1882 — zoo a quarter hour on foot, and on match days and concert days the area around Stadium lives its own, louder life. Two blocks can change everything here, so before making a decision it is worth walking the area on foot, preferably in the evening.

Port Praski is not a trade name, but a real port. The basin at the mouth of the Port Canal was excavated in the 19th century for barges and for most of the twentieth century stood unused, cut off from the city, just opposite the Old Town. Today a whole district is being created around it, and the water remained in the middle of the development instead of being filled in.

The Port II building stands at Okrzei 8, a street named after Stefan Okrzei, a socialist executed at the Citadel in 1905. It has eight above-ground storeys and one underground, one hundred fifty-six apartments and eight service premises on the ground floor. The design was by the APA Wojciechowski studio.

What is not visible in the visualisations: the location is exceptional and this is evident in the price. It is a walk to Stadion Narodowy metro station, and the Śląsko-Dąbrowski bridge leads directly to the Old Town, so the left bank is closer here than from many addresses on the left side. The price for this is one of the highest on Praga and this is not a segment where one looks for bargains. The second thing: the district is still being built, subsequent blocks of Port Praski are underway, so for the coming years the neighbourhood will be changing.

Prices and available apartments in individual stages are in the table below, straight from the developer's price list.