Skanska wants to complete the district near Kolbenova metro station by 2023

Prague - The development company Skanska plans to complete a new district in the brownfield area near the Kolbenova metro station in Prague's Vysočany by 2023, which it acquired from Codeco UK in 2017. The first phase of the project, which includes 133 apartments, is expected to be finished this September, and the company aims to start construction on an additional 190 apartments this summer. This will be followed by 11 more buildings with hundreds of apartments. This information comes from documentation submitted by the company during the environmental impact assessment (EIA).

The former industrial buildings located on the brownfield are set to be demolished by the company, except for the old boiler room, which will be converted into a restaurant and possibly a gallery. The district, named after industrialist Emil Kolben, will include commercial spaces alongside residential buildings. Parking spaces will primarily be located in underground garages. The company began construction on the first buildings in 2017 when it purchased the land along with a building permit for part of the project.

The new district project in Vysočany, designed for 40,000 residents, was presented by the development companies Codeco, Finep, Imos Development, and CPI Group as early as 2009. According to initial plans, part of the original industrial architecture was to be preserved, such as the functionalist villa of architect František Albert Libra and some manufacturing halls. However, Codeco ultimately sold the project. "The reason for the sale is the scale of the eight-hectare area, which requires a very strong developer to construct all the necessary conditional infrastructure," said the company's director Petr Fanta at that time.

Skanska is one of the largest construction and development companies in the Czech Republic and Slovakia and is part of the global Skanska group based in Sweden. It primarily focuses on road and railway construction and concrete structures. Its subsidiaries also specialize in the construction of residential and commercial properties, mainly in Prague.