Pardubice municipal company proposes the sale of the dilapidated and valuable passage

Pardubice - The Pardubice City Development Fund is proposing the sale of the Machoň Passage, a historically valuable building and cultural monument. It has been deteriorating for years and the fund that owns it doesn't have the money for repairs. The Pardubice council will receive a request along with an economic analysis of the sale of the passage in less than two weeks, said Milan Tichý, the chairman of the fund's board, to ČTK.
    "Any potential investor would have to restore the building to its original condition; that would be a condition of the sale," Tichý said. According to him, finding an investor won't be too difficult.
    According to the latest estimates that the fund had prepared four years ago, the least expensive renovation would cost about 150 million crowns, while two other projects estimate costs between 180 and more than 200 million crowns. The most expensive project included the completion of wings, the purchase of surrounding land, and the construction of, for example, administrative buildings or apartments.
    "The largest project should at least have a realistic chance of return on investment. However, the landowner has not sold the land to the fund yet and probably will not sell it," said Mayor Jaroslav Deml.
    Deml also added that the city will decide on the sale of the passage only based on detailed analyses that the fund wants to present at the next council meeting. The money earned could be used by the city to repair the swimming complex, Deml added.
    An expert estimated the property's value at 90 million crowns, but Tichý expects that the selling price could oscillate around 130 million crowns.
    The passage with luxury shops, previously typical mainly for Paris, opened for the residents of Pardubice in the mid-1920s. The design was by architect Ladislav Machoň, who designed it in the art deco style. Machoň originally planned to connect it to side passages in the surrounding buildings. However, his project was never fully realized.