Gočárovy mills have handicaps that may deter buyers

Pardubice - The automatic mills in Pardubice, which are for sale for 40 million crowns, have several drawbacks that may discourage buyers. CTK was informed today by Mayor Štěpánka Fraňková and her deputy Michal Koláček. The municipality is to decide by the end of the year whether to accept the offer to buy the mills from Goodmills. The city hall currently prefers to cooperate with a potential investor.
    "We should not be a leader in the utilization of automatic mills, but we can be a strong partner,” said Koláček.
    According to the mayor, the site is poorly accessible. It is located by the waterfront near the historical center and is connected by just a narrow local road. Next to it, there is a bakery operating both night and day, where trucks come in and take away the baked goods early in the morning. In the case of residential buildings being constructed, the noisy operation may disturb future apartment owners.
    "And I might be afraid of a larger presence of rodents,” added the mayor.
    Two investors are reportedly interested in the mills, one of whom is a local patriot. Their identities have not yet been disclosed by the city leadership, as they want to meet with them first. Mayor Fraňková stated that the city hall should take a more definitive stance in about two months. Deputy Koláček, who is a court expert in real estate, added that the proposed price is not excessive.
    "It is 1100 m² of space in the city center. That’s 3800 crowns per square meter. The buildings are immediately usable for some business. However, the question remains whether anyone will be willing to pay this price. Then, the market value of the site may drop to half of the proposed amount,” said the deputy.
    Initially, the city hall hired a coordinator, architect Ondřej Teplý, who created a study of the site's utilization from an architectural perspective. Experts in the field generally stated that transformations of industrial properties abroad are successful and that industrial real estate finds application even after production has ceased.
    This week, the councilors rejected the idea of commissioning another analysis that would evaluate the economic aspects of possible cultural and commercial investments and projects. It would cost more than half a million crowns, which many councilors felt was too much. They did not expect that the study would bring any groundbreaking ideas.
    The mills are one of the first and most famous designs by Gočár. They were built between 1910 and 1925. Gočár was inspired by Anglo-Saxon architecture in the design of the mills. The buildings are characterized by its raw brickwork made of dark and light bricks.