Pardubice does not give up the idea of buying the historic mills

Pardubice - Pardubice do not give up on the idea of buying the monument-protected Automatic Mills from GoodMills. The buildings designed by architect Josef Gočár have been abandoned since last spring. Negotiations have been dragging on for about two years, and the city had a construction-technical survey conducted some time ago. The owner had not approached other interested parties for a long time, but has now turned to an external company to find another investor, said Mayor Martin Charvát (ANO) at today’s council meeting. However, the city will find it difficult to seek funding for the repair of the national monument.
    "The deadline is until the end of November. We will prepare a report for the October council meeting where we would define all the conditions, opportunities, and risks of purchasing the property, as we still have the option to enter this process," Charvát stated.
    A working group was formed two years ago for the possible use of the mills and created a proposal for the so-called Kulturfabrik, a cultural-educational center. However, the council members did not approve the project last September, nor did they decide on the purchase of the mills for 25 million crowns. Due to low participation, the vote was invalid.
    Pardubice had hoped to obtain a European grant for the revitalization of the national cultural monument from the Integrated Territorial Investments (ITI) program. This could amount to up to five million euros (about 136 million crowns). The costs for reconstruction and equipment were estimated to be between 300 and 500 million crowns. However, according to the mayor, the conditions for the grant have become very stringent and restrictive; for example, it cannot be combined with other grant programs. The object must also serve cultural purposes 85 percent of the time. "For such a large and complicated building, I cannot imagine that we would take on such a significant risk," Charvát said.
    Members of the working group Mills, which includes some architects and preservationists, sent an open letter criticizing the Pardubice leadership for alleged passivity. "No outputs documenting the independent activity of the city leadership have been published so far, based on which the public would be familiarized with the vision for the future development of the area, or arguments would be established for resigning from the efforts for the city’s autonomous procedure," the letter states. Civic activists also point out that a point in the electoral program of the ANO party was dedicated to the topic of Automatic Mills and their transformation into a cultural public space. They are demanding from the mayor to issue an official statement on how he intends to fulfill this point of the electoral program and what the city leadership's vision regarding the mill area is.
    Gočár designed the mills on the right bank of the Chrudimka River for the Winternitz brothers. The left wing of the building with the adjacent silo was built from 1909 to 1911. The construction is based on the Anglo-Saxon tradition and is characterized by its masonry made of dark and light bricks. In the following decades, additional buildings were constructed in the area, which no longer fit into the architectural concept.