V. A field of opportunity
- I was reasonably prepared for the war," says Stanislaw Mazur.
His Presidential Hotel stands in the center of the city. He has another one, the Ostoya Mansion, with an inn and a swimming pool, right next to the airport. He rents it out to Americans and tries to persuade them to eat prosciutto burgers. It's a local specialty - instead of a bun, flour patties with baking soda are used.
He begins the conversation by explaining what Galicia was. - We are a relatively poor region, but 150 years ago our ancestors had a pull to leave, mainly for America. Some of them returned. When Gierek came, again people were going to the States, drawn by their families. In such Kolbuszowa, there was hardly anyone who didn't have someone there.
That's where the knowledge that there was another world came from, Mazur adds, as well as the money to invest.
He himself provides an example. In 1988, he went to visit his family in New York. A doorman position at an apartment building owned by the Trump family had just become vacant. One of the first people he met was Trump senior - Fred. - He wanted to give me a tip, 20 bucks. In Poland, I earned 12 for a month. I defended myself, and finally he told me to accept for luck," he says.
Mazur greeted guests, cleaned, changed light bulbs and showed apartments for rent. At Trump's, he worked until 4pm, then saw patients as a doctor for three hours, and on weekends, he made money at an electronics store. - A total of 102 hours a week. I went for three months, came back after a year and a half. I probably earned three times more than other Poles," he recalls.
Upon his return, he reportedly bought the most modern ultrasound machine in the entire Rzeszow province. He then founded the Medyk chain of private medical clinics. Today he is one of the largest employers in the region, employing 1,200 people. Plus another 150 in hotels. During the pandemic, Mazur was called the king of vaccines. He is said to have vaccinated a third of the province. In 2019, his company had a 4 million zloty profit.
In the US, he also met Fred Trump's son Donald, the future US president. According to him, it was thanks to those acquaintances that he knew about the war a dozen days before it broke out.
- In mid-February 2021, I was in Miami, at Donald Trump's summer residence. Someone asked him if there would be a war. At that time he expressed that there would rather be. When? Rather soon," says Mazur
Even before that trip to the US, he had worked with the Americans setting up a base in Rzeszow. They showed up a month before the Russian aggression in Ukraine. Mazur's company prepared food for them.
After that evening in Florida, he wrote to his employees on WhatsApp to be prepared for war.
His wife wrote back: "Stupid, don't scare people."
Mazur's employees bought a thousand beds, hundreds of sets of bedding, blankets, pillows, sleeping bags, a full car of bandage medicines, food products with long expiration dates. They recalled what first aid is, received psychological training. In three days they organized a refugee center. - The city didn't have such fast execution capabilities," Mazur says.
He estimates that 40,000 people passed through his refugee center. They kept doctors, about 50 in total. - Genetically we are close, they come to us like we used to come to Germany, only there we were always the black sheep. We made them meet with police officers so they would know that in our country no bribes are given or taken," says Mazur.
He recalls how 150 Americans descended on the Bristol Hotel in Rzeszow in March. They were debating the reconstruction of Ukraine. - When we start asking to be included in it, they are already making plans where new airports will be built, where roads will be built, where something can be mined," Mazur says.
He heralds an acceleration. - The Adriatic, the Baltic, the Black Sea - what's in between? Rzeszow. We have a unique mission ahead of us, thousands of Americans need infrastructure, several thousand hectares under lease, apartments, houses, food. That's why I want everyone in my company to speak good English. We can be like South Korea, which grew thanks to the US. In the beginning they gave them plush toys to produce, today they are a technological superpower. We should function under the aegis of the Americans here.
Rzeszow's strengths according to Mazur? Traditional Polish family, traditional values. He pauses, takes a look, describes our Polishness: pronounced supraorbital shafts, spiky end of the nose, more plump calves in women. - Rzeszow has had a record low number of murders for years, he continues. - This gives the way of upbringing, the lack of a negative immigrant element like in London or Paris. There will never be few thieves there, there always will be, we don't have the exotic mix in Rzeszow as we do in the West.
Mazur runs medical care for the Americans - mostly civilians ("soldiers are healthy") -, persuades employees to learn English, gives bonuses for it, works with companies that back up the military, and helps find land for investment. He has just built 14 apartments for the Americans, there will be 28 in a block of apartments, on top of which he wants to erect five-story houses with a base of 35 meters for them.
- I go to the conservationist - it's possible, to the president - it's possible, to the starost - it's possible, to the head of the municipality - it's possible. Here things are possible that are not possible in Warsaw," says Mazur.
VI. Tight
Who is making money off of Rzeszow's new residents?
Tomasz, 50, in Rzeszow since birth: - Further family in Nike worked. Record turnover, Ukrainians bought everything out.
Bartosz, 40, in Rzeszow since birth: - My friend knows the owner of the exchange office, fat money they exchange, a million euros, 500 thousand dollars. There used to be no such thing.
And who doesn't make money?
Diana and Aleksander Sarn were born in Rzeszow, and run a design office here that carries out interior design projects in Poland and abroad.
Diana: - We worked on the project of a cosmetics factory. It did not come into being as it was planned at the beginning, the building stood, but the investor decided to finish the interiors on a smaller scale. And the factory itself has not yet started up.
Alexander: - We lost 60 percent of local projects. People don't invest in home furnishings as much as they used to. Businesses are drifting away, but the fear hasn't gone away. We know some who packed their suitcases and made their Dubai resident cards last March. They remained in permanent readiness to leave.
So are the houses close to where the Sarns live. They were built quickly, but stand empty waiting for more certain times. - I spoke with a concrete producer recently, he froze business for a while, now he mixes concrete further, but only for investments started before the war. He is not working on anything new. We are also thinking about it ourselves, we are not investing, we are watching," says Diana.
Andrzej Ozga, pharmaceutical representative, born in 1973, all his life in Rzeszow: - My family has not been affected in any way.
Ozga drives us to the airport, slowly, we stand a lot, the snake of cars barely moves.
- In the morning on the access roads cosmic traffic jams. Dozens of trucks, containers, ammunition. The previous president made a mess of construction, blocks of flats were squeezed in without a development plan, wherever possible.
It was possible and on his street, although it is one and a half meters narrow and only houses were put there before.
Diana Sarna: - A bungalow, a terraced house, in a moment big blocks, then a terraced house again. In the worst situation are those who were there first. Sometimes they have lost access to light. There is a lack of development plans and thinking about green areas for all residents of Rzeszow. Why are there construction markets in the city center?
Neither the war nor the big world can be seen in the city, by the airport, yes - cars with diplomatic plates and tinted windows are parked every bit of the way, Patriot batteries stand behind a grid just off the road, and soon it will be possible to get here by train.
- Concrete britches appeared in the city, Ukrainians came with cash, they supposedly bought several apartments for cash each, there are really a lot of them here, somehow they don't particularly bother me," says Ozga
Instead, he is annoyed that the government is credited with helping him. - If it wasn't for the solidarity of the people of Rzeszów, it would have been difficult. The government has failed. I didn't see people camping out in the streets, but that's not PiS's fault, it's ours. Rzeszów residents took in Ukrainians in private homes, it is still like that today. A social act.
What if the war extended to western Ukraine? - If a million come, there will be a problem. People don't want to get so involved anymore. The market has saturated, where will they find work? Here are the wealthier ones who do not require financial assistance. The next millions will need it. How will Rzeszow accommodate them? For now, I see mostly pats on the back. Whether any businesses will spring up remains to be seen. We have good advertising, everyone has already heard about Rzeszow, the US president has been twice. But I don't believe that the current government will be able to capitalize on this.
to be continued
