Prague will buy the Žižkov Cargo Station with larger plots of land

Prague - The Prague City Hall will negotiate the purchase of the Žižkov Freight Station in a variant that includes acquiring land on the southern side of the building. An expert assessment set the price for 62,200 square meters at 662 million crowns. The city considered a smaller variant of 46,800 square meters for nearly 581 million, which it evaluated as less advantageous. This follows from a document approved by the city council today. The purchase of the property was approved by the city council last summer. Prague is negotiating the purchase, among others, with the joint venture of Sekyra Group and Czech Railways, which wants to use part of the station for apartments and non-residential spaces.

In the future, the National Film Archive is expected to be housed in the station building, which should financially contribute to the building's future revitalization.

The station building is owned by Czech Railways, which, together with the development company Sekyra Group, previously formed the joint venture Žižkov Station Development. The company has a right of first refusal on the station building. According to the approved document, the company conditions its cooperation on its future involvement in the building's reconstruction and the creation of residential and non-residential spaces there.

Both commercial and residential spaces are to be primarily used for rent, "unless it limits their usability in the market," the document states. At least half of the apartments are to be small-sized and intended for affordable housing. Some of them will be owned by the city.

The spacious building is to be divided into three separate structures - the northern wing, the southern wing, and the frontal administrative building. The described next steps also propose the establishment of a homeowners' association, where Prague should hold the majority, and possibly an association for the coordination of the station's reconstruction.

According to the document, the reconstruction costs should amount to 1.6 to 1.9 billion crowns if the city hall provides the rough reconstruction and other users adapt the spaces at their own expense. If Prague were to pay for everything, it would have to invest about 2.5 billion. In both cases, these costs do not include the purchase price.

North of the station, the development company Central Group plans to build a new neighborhood, which purchased the land along with the project from the British company Discovery Group in 2016. While the Brits intended to build a commercial and office center, Central Group's project, valued at around nine billion crowns, is to include 2,100 to 2,600 apartments, a park, and a kindergarten. The company aims to start construction in 2020.

The fate of the interwar functionalist station building has been addressed in Prague 3 for years. Originally, it was to be demolished for construction, but due to pressure from local activists, the demolition was halted. Since 2013, the station has been a cultural monument. The building, constructed in the 1930s, was considered by experts to be among the most modern of its kind in Europe, both in terms of technology and architecture.