Interested parties in the Skloexport building in Liberec must deposit a security by midnight today

Liberec - Potential buyers of the long-unused Skloexport building in Liberec have until midnight tonight to pay a deposit of 5.7 million crowns and participate in the third round of the auction announced by the Office for the Representation of the State in Property Matters (ÚZSVM). The office has reduced the price of the building by an additional ten million crowns to 57.01 million, and neither the Liberec Region nor the city of Liberec will be among the interested parties, ČTK learned today.

"The city of Liberec will definitely not participate in the new auction for the sale of Skloexport," said Adam Lenert, the deputy mayor (ANO), to ČTK. According to him, the reason is that the city hall does not have a mandate from the council, and the price at which the state offers the property still seems too high to Liberec. The Liberec Region will also not participate in the auction, according to the governor's deputy Zbyňek Miklík (Pirates).

The seven-story Skloexport building was constructed according to a design by architect František Vahala at the corner of Žitavská and 1. máje streets between 1928 and 1930 for the tax and customs administration. The famous exporter of Czech glass acquired it during the communist regime; the company went bankrupt in the second half of the 90s. The state took over the building in 2001, and the last tenants left it eight years later. The state has been unsuccessfully trying to sell the premises, which have a floor area of 9,357 square meters, since 2008. According to estimates, it needs reconstruction costing more than half a billion crowns.

For years, the building belonged to the General Financial Directorate. It was first offered in August 2008, when a court expert set the minimum price at 84.6 million crowns, but no buyers were found. The premises could not be sold in the following years either, during which the price was gradually reduced to 45 million crowns. In May 2020, the building was taken over by the ÚZSVM; according to the office's spokesperson Michaela Tesařová, no state institution has shown interest in the building, which is why the office is looking for a new owner through a transparent electronic auction.

The office first auctioned the building on November 15 and 16 last year with a starting price of over 79 million crowns. One interested party paid the deposit but did not bid, and the building was not sold. The second round of the auction, on December 20 and 21, had a similar outcome, even though the price was reduced to 67 million. The third round of the auction will start on Tuesday at 10:00 AM and end the next day, February 1, at the same time.