The project of the Janáček Cultural Center in Brno is postponed

Brno - The project for the construction of a concert hall for the Brno Philharmonic, which has been discussed in Brno for nearly a hundred years, is delayed again. The city council canceled the tender for the contractor of the documentation for the land-use permit. Few companies applied, so the council canceled the competition and will announce it again, Deputy Mayor Ladislav Macek told reporters.
    According to Deputy Mayor Barbara Javorová, responsible for culture, the city has prepared an amount of up to ten million crowns for the land-use documentation, and as soon as the land-use decision is made, it will prepare documents for the building permit.
    However, the financing of the construction of the Janáček Cultural Centre, which will cost more than one billion crowns, remains unclear. According to the deputy mayor, the city has committed to invest 189 million crowns, a similar share should be provided by the region, and the council estimates that approximately 100 million crowns could be obtained from European Union funds. "The rest should be covered by a potential private investor who would build the commercial areas and then operate them," Javorová told ČTK. The city currently does not have such a partner.
    Any potential private investor would also have to consider the operating costs of the cultural center. According to Javorová, the city is not willing to contribute more than it currently gives to the Brno Philharmonic. In the proposed budget for next year, this amounts to 53 million crowns, and this year's contribution was at a similar level.
    The Janáček Cultural Centre is to become the home stage not only for the philharmonic but also for the opera and ballet of the National Theatre Brno. Currently, the orchestra performs in the small hall of the Besední dům, while larger concerts take place in the Janáček Theatre. However, neither of these halls is suitable; they have poor acoustics and other shortcomings. "We actually don’t know at all what our philharmonic sounds like; we would have to go to some high-quality hall and listen to it there," previously stated Alena Štěpánková Veselá, the chairwoman of the Brno Society of Friends of Music.