The demolition of the dilapidated Kovák hostel in Chrastava is set to begin at the turn of January and February

Chrastava - The demolition of the dilapidated Kovák hostel should begin in Chrastava in the Liberec region at the turn of January and February. Michael Canov (Mayors for the Liberec Region), the mayor, said this to ČTK today. The city hall has been striving for the demolition of the run-down building at the entrance to the city for ten years. Lidl, which owns the land and the building, plans to build a supermarket with a parking lot for approximately 80 cars on the site of Kovák. According to the mayor, the nearby intersection should also undergo a transformation into a roundabout.

The Kovák hostel, built in the 1970s, was intended for apprentices of the then Chrastava-based company Elitex. In the mid-1990s, the building was acquired by Prague entrepreneur Radim Urban, who turned it into a hostel. It housed up to 200 people, even though its capacity was not even half that. Due to unsatisfactory conditions, the building had to be vacated at the beginning of 2010, and it has been empty and deteriorating since then.

The owner then wanted to convert the building into small apartments. However, the council rejected the project, as they did not believe that it would not again become a problematic hostel. Another owner planned to convert Kovák into a care facility, according to Canov, but that project also fell through, and the building and land were later acquired by Lidl.

The city hall has been working for years to remove the dilapidated building, as Canov stated, there was a risk that the crumbling structure could seriously injure or even kill someone. However, the demolition order issued by the Chrastava officials was repeatedly revoked by the regional office. According to the mayor, the demolition will finally take place now. The demolition of the building and the construction of the supermarket have the support of the city's residents, ČTK found out. "When you drive down the main road to Chrastava, that's the first thing you see, and it's shameful," said Mr. Miroslav, who was shopping in the city center today.

Due to the construction of the store, the city changed the zoning plan according to Canov. "On that site, residential buildings can no longer be constructed, but only service buildings, such as shops and similar," he added. According to the mayor, the preparation for construction was complicated by a stream underground. "Because of this, they had to move the store further away from the road towards the ice rink, and there will be a parking lot on the site of Kovák and towards the road. Otherwise, they would have had to establish the construction on piles," described the construction issues by the mayor of Chrastava.