Five applicants are applying for public contracts for the construction of a concert hall in Ostrava

Ostrava - Five candidates have applied for the public contract to construct the reconstruction of the Ostrava City Culture House and the extension of the concert hall. Their price offers are lower than the city originally expected. According to estimates, the entire project was supposed to cost around 4.1 billion crowns. Potential contractors offered prices ranging from 2.7 to 3.7 billion crowns. Mayor Jan Dohnal (Together) said this in response to a query from ČTK today.

"I must state that I am pleased that all the offers are below our expected price. We definitely want to continue with the project, but now is the moment when the offers will start to be checked and verified to ensure that everything has been met. This means that we may have to exclude some applicants due to errors in their offers. Of course, the contract is complex,” said Dohnal.

The mayor expects that the assessment of the offers could be completed by the turn of the year. The actual construction could then begin next year. However, necessary preparatory work is already being carried out on site. In evaluating the offers, price will not be the only consideration; other criteria will also be taken into account, which, according to the mayor, were numerous for such a demanding project. "Price will definitely be important, but it is not the only criterion. So it does not mean that the one who submitted the lowest bid will necessarily win," added Dohnal.

The construction of the new concert hall, designed by American architect Steven Holl, is among the most controversial projects in the city. Some councilors have previously criticized the financial demands of the project and its significant financial burden on the city. "It's a lot of money, but we have financing prepared in some phase of readiness. We have secured a relatively large number of external sources,” said Dohnal. He is convinced that the project will continue.

The design of the concert hall was presented by Ostrava in July 2019 when the results of the largest architectural competition in the modern history of the city were announced. The authors of the winning design are Steven Holl Architects from New York and Architecture Acts from Prague. The American magazine Architizer ranked the project among the ten most anticipated buildings in the world in 2021. The new complex will be used as a music, cultural, production, or educational center and will also be the home of the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra Ostrava.

The concert hall itself is set to have a capacity of 1,300 seats. The project also includes, for example, a theater hall with a capacity of 490 seats, a chamber multifunctional hall with 515 seats, a lecture multifunctional hall with a capacity of 120 seats, and an educational center with 200 seats. The complex is also to include a recording studio, a restaurant, a café, and other spaces. The city has attempted to construct the new hall six times in the past, first in the 1860s and most recently in 1969.