The new form of Žofinka in Ostrava will be decided by an urban planning and architectural competition

Ostrava - The shape of the new Ostrava district in the brownfield area of Žofinka will be decided by the upcoming urban-planning and architectural competition, which is set to be announced this month. In the area between Nová Karolina and the Lower Area of Vítkovice, at the site of the former slag heap of the Žofinská foundry, a new part of the city is expected to emerge over the next two to three decades, featuring apartments, services, and administration. A private investor intends to construct the buildings, while the city should be responsible for the necessary transport and other infrastructure. City and investor representatives conveyed this information to journalists today.

The brownfield spans approximately 20 hectares, with around 515,000 m² planned for construction. "This is a long-term project that will develop over two to three decades. We expect that in the first phase we would like to have a designed volume of about 60,000 m²," stated Tomáš Laštovka, a board member of Pod Žofinkou Holding, which will be the project investor.

The first phase is expected to cost approximately 3.6 to 4 billion crowns. The investor aims to start construction in 2027 and anticipates completing the first part of the project in about three years. "In the first phase, we are talking about approximately 1,000 apartments, which will be gradually put on the market over those three years. Some will be for rent, and some for sale. We do not want to create a mono-functional area, and therefore we will already combine housing with services, for example, within the first phase," said Laštovka.

The results of the urban-planning and architectural competition should be known in the spring of next year. Competitors will propose the urban structure of the new development, including transport solutions and the layout of the first phase. "We will negotiate with the winner of the competition to develop a territorial study with regulatory elements for the entire area in question and to prepare a project for the implementation of the first phase of Žofinka's development," said Libor Adámek, chair of the board of Pod Žofinkou Holding.

The jury of the competition will select only five to seven participants based on applications with portfolios of reference works. "They will then participate in three competitive workshops, during which the jury, investors, local government, and other stakeholders will engage in dialogue directly with the competition teams," stated Petr Návrat from the planning office responsible for organizing the competition.

According to Mayor Jan Dohnal (Together), Žofinka is a key development area for the city. "It is an area between the center of Ostrava and the Lower Area of Vítkovice, which are two development cores of the city. Today, we have a huge area here that is unused. If Ostrava is to develop anywhere, this is exactly the gap in the middle of the city," said Dohnal. He stated that the city will maintain control over the development of the area through necessary changes to the zoning plan.

"It is a private project, but the city will participate in it, so we want to have control over what grows in this area within the framework of cooperation. Together with Pod Žofinkou Holding, we are preparing changes to the zoning plan. As a city, we will be building key infrastructure here, without which private capital would never create what it wants to create here. Therefore, the city will have double control, both through building key infrastructure and also through the zoning plan," added Dohnal. More information about the project can also be found on the website www.zofinka.cz.