The construction of the Copa Center on Národní Street is delayed

Prague - The construction of the Copa Center, which is to be built above the National Avenue metro station in Prague, is delayed. Archaeologists have halted their excavation work here because they could not reach an agreement with the investor, Copa Group. According to them, the investor did not fulfill the agreements, said research leader Tomasz Cymbalak to ČTK. Consequently, the planned reconstruction of the metro station is also delayed.
    "The investor is not fulfilling the conditions of the agreement that he made with us. Therefore, I was forced to suspend the research at the beginning of December," Cymbalak said. He did not want to elaborate on the reasons for the dispute. According to company spokesperson Karin Cífková, the investor currently needs to resolve a technical issue with the architects first. "Only afterward will we proceed to further matters, including completing the archaeological survey," she added.
    Negotiations should, according to Cymbalak, continue in the second half of January. If an agreement is reached, the archaeologists will return to the site within a few days. The entire research, which was supposed to be completed by the beginning of January, will then finish by mid-March.
    Sebastian Pawlowski, owner of Copa Group, the investor in the construction, said in the autumn of 2008 that the construction could begin within three months. However, due to several appeals and the prolonging archaeological research, it has not yet fully started.
    The planned reconstruction of the National Avenue metro station is also being prolonged. According to spokesperson of the transport company Ondřej Pečený, the start of the reconstruction will begin several weeks or months after the start of the Copa Center construction. The leadership of the company does not yet know when that will be. The reconstruction of the station, which will include an accessibility elevator, will not take longer than ten months based on the request of the Prague magistrate.
    During the extensive ongoing research, which they call one of the most important in the city center recently and which has been ongoing since the end of July, archaeologists have made several significant discoveries. Near Spálená Street, they managed to excavate 11 intact Gothic cellars from houses that were demolished in the second half of the 19th century. According to Cymbalak, the investor has promised to preserve at least some of them, so he will revise the building plans.
    Thanks to the excavations, the scientists have also managed to prove that habitation from the 12th century extended to this area on the border of New and Old Town. They also found gravestones from a nearby abandoned Jewish cemetery in the foundations of the demolished houses.
    The multifunctional Copa Center is projected to cost around four billion crowns. It will have four underground levels and seven to eight above-ground floors. The six interconnected buildings will feature apartments, offices, shopping passages, and parking for about 250 cars. The building will be connected to the Tesco department store. The construction is expected to take approximately 20 months.