The Bagrys entered the building of the former Prior in the center of Teplice

Teplice - Excavators have begun work on the building of the former Prior in the center of Teplice, where a shopping center named Galerie Teplice will be built, featuring shops and a multiplex cinema. Two shopping galleries are simultaneously rising on Svobody Square, with the first set to open in spring 2013 and the second a year later.
      The Teplice Prior was built in 1981; in the previous decade, socialist architects created space for it by demolishing an entire block of old buildings known as the "Teplice Block." The owner of Prior, the Dandreet company, plans to construct a new, larger shopping center in its place for 1.2 billion crowns.
      "Demolition and construction of the new building will last until the end of 2013, and it will open to the public in the spring of 2014," informed ČTK media representative Martin Jonáš. According to the original plans, the gallery was supposed to be completed by this time, but architectural research has delayed the construction.
      The new department store will occupy the entire area of the original block; it is said to offer a hundred shops, 450 parking spaces, and a multiplex cinema with four halls. The investor promises that up to 500 jobs will be created in the building. However, local civic associations criticize the construction, particularly objecting to the influx of a large number of cars into the city center.
      In the eighty-thousand-strong agglomeration, such a department store has long been missing from the center, which has likely caused the current and somewhat paradoxical situation - two stores will be built directly across from each other. Last autumn, the never-completed Radnice hotel from the late 80s vanished from the neighboring side of the square, along with two 19th-century houses. The investor of the second project is Teplice developer Jaroslav Třešňák and his company JTH. He also anticipates approximately 20,000 square meters of retail space, with completion expected by next spring.

photo: Zákupák