Real estate firm ECE threatened the Czech Republic with arbitration over one billion CZK

Prague - The German real estate company ECE Projektmanagement has threatened the Czech Republic with arbitration over nearly one billion crowns due to the planned construction of a shopping center in Liberec. Representatives of ECE Projektmanagement told reporters today. The subject of the dispute is the alleged illegal procedure of the Ministry for Regional Development. The MMR does not want to comment on the case for now.
ECE, which wants to invest nearly three billion crowns in the construction of the Galerie Liberec shopping center, disagrees with the MMR's decision, which overturned the previous statement of the Liberec municipality and the regional office and recognized the competing Multi Development as a participant in the construction proceedings. The advisory body of the ministry, the so-called appeal commission, reportedly recommended that the ministerial decision be revoked.
The company Multi Development, with Dutch owners, which is building a competing shopping center in Liberec, was the first to obtain a building permit. However, after a few months, a competing project from ECE emerged, which Multi challenged at the Liberec municipality, claiming it disadvantaged them. However, they did not succeed even after appealing to the regional office. The MMR only recognized Multi as a participant in the proceedings after it canceled the zoning decision of the Liberec council, which had permitted the construction of the Galerie Liberec shopping center, in August of this year. ECE filed an appeal against this MMR ruling at the beginning of September.
"We are concerned that Minister (Jiří) Čunek will act entirely unstandardly again, as he has already disregarded the recommendation of the MMR appeal commission once. If these concerns are realized and Minister Čunek does not revoke the unlawful MMR decision again without further ado, the ECE development group is prepared to demand back damages from the Czech Republic amounting to nearly one billion crowns," said Josef Tobek, the managing director of ECE Projektmanagement Prague, to reporters today. The MMR does not want to comment on the case because the administrative procedure has not yet been completed, said ministry spokesman Hynek Jordán to ČTK on Monday.
ECE has already started extensive earthworks in Liberec thanks to the zoning decision of the local council, and according to Tobek, the MMR decision is causing damages. The management of ECE is concerned that due to administrative delays, they will lose some tenants who want to have a store in their Liberec shopping center.
The ECE group manages nearly a hundred shopping centers in 14 countries. In the Czech Republic, this development company has invested more than 200 million euros (almost five billion crowns) to date. ECE constructed the Galerie Vaňkovka shopping center in Brno and will open the Arkády Pankrác shopping center in Prague this year. In addition to the Galerie Liberec shopping center, the ECE group is also planning the construction of a recreational area with a sports stadium and shopping center in Hradec Králové.