In Prachatice, a spa will be established within a year and a half for 300 million crowns

Prachatice - New rehabilitation spa with massages, saunas, and a large wave pool will be built in Prachatice within a year and a half. The laying of the cornerstone for the so-called wellness center was started today by the investor company Healing Center of Saint Margaret under the local Libín hill. The spa center, costing 300 million crowns, could be visited by up to 350,000 people annually, said the chairman of the board of the company, Ladislav Marek, to journalists.
    "We received a contribution of 105 million crowns from the South Bohemian Region and European funds for the wellness center. The rest is financed from the shareholders' own sources," said Marek
    The complex of the Healing and Rehabilitation Center of Saint Margaret is divided into three phases. In addition to the pool area, including massages and slides, and a sauna facility with ten different types of saunas, a hotel with 350 beds and a conference hall is to be built next to it. "We would like to open it in the autumn of 2010," Marek noted. The last phase is a sports center. The total cost of the entire resort will be 900 million crowns. Most of the money is promised by investors from banks. Initially, 40 people will find work there, and after the hotel and other facilities are completed, up to 130 people.
    "We hope that the overall approval of the entire resort will be completed in 2011," Marek noted, indicating that a request for 150 million crowns is currently being prepared for the spring call of the Regional Operational Program. The money is intended for the construction of the hotel with a conference part, which has a budget of 400 million crowns.
    The actual construction of the first phase, that is, the spa center, whose preparation took about eight years, will start in spring. The contractor is the company Metrostav. The subsequent operator of the spa will be the German company g1, which will undertake its first domestic project. g1 already has 13 similar pool centers, mainly in Germany and Austria, including in Gmünd, Austria, and Nuremberg, Germany. The center in Gmünd, located on the Czech-Austrian border, is considered the closest model for the Prachatice spa according to Marek.
    "Out of this year's 300,000 guests, 120,000 are from the Czech Republic, including from České Budějovice, Hluboká, Třeboň, or Jindřichův Hradec. People are willing to travel up to 120 kilometers for this attraction. We anticipate that our location and catchment area is much more favorable to achieve this level of attendance," stated Marek. He added that the model for the Prachatice spa was the rehabilitation center in Geinberg, Austria.
    The spa in Prachatice builds on the historical tradition of hydrotherapy dating back to the mid-18th century. "Climate spas operated here until the end of World War II," stated Mayor Jan Bauer. Prachatice is also striving for the status of a spa town. A nearby source of bulrush-sedge mud could help with this.
    The Healing Center of St. Margaret is owned one-quarter by the city through the land, while the rest of the shares are held by private investors from both the Czech Republic and abroad. Ladislav Marek is the largest shareholder with 40 percent of the shares.