The Teplice Prior has also begun to emerge, the successor will open in a year and a half

New Gallery Teplice replacing the existing Prior

Teplice - The old department store Prior has begun to be demolished in Teplice’s Svobody Square. In its place, a new shopping Gallery Teplice is expected to arise within the next year and a half, along with a multiplex cinema. Martin Jonáš, the media representative of the investor, informed ČTK about this today. The preparation for demolition began last week, with excavators expected to start tearing into the building within two weeks. Competition is already constructing a similar building just around the corner of the square.
The current Teplice Prior was built in 1981; in the previous decade, socialist architects made room for it by demolishing an entire block of the old buildings known as the "Teplice Block." "Demolition officially began today," Jonáš stated. The owner of Prior, the company Dandreet, intends to build a new, larger shopping center on its site for 1.2 billion crowns. "Demolition and the construction of the new building will last until the end of 2013, with opening to the public slated for the spring of 2014," Jonáš added. According to original plans, the gallery should have been completed by now, but the construction was delayed by architectural research.
The new department store is set to occupy the entire area of the original block; it is said to offer a hundred stores, 450 parking spaces, and a multiplex cinema with four halls. According to Jonáš, over 60 percent of the stores are already rented; the list includes clothing chains Intersport, Baťa, and H&M, as well as electronics retailer Euronics. Some of them are already operating in the city, but at different locations. The investor promises that the building will create up to 500 jobs.
Such a department store has long been missing in the eighty-thousand strong agglomeration directly in the center, which has likely caused the current and somewhat paradoxical situation - two centers will be built directly opposite each other. Last autumn, the never-completed Town Hall hotel from the late 1980s disappeared from the neighboring side of the square, along with two houses from the 19th century. The investor of the second project is Teplice developer Jaroslav Třešňák and his company JTH. He is also counting on approximately 20,000 square meters of shopping space, with completion expected by next spring.
However, local non-profit organizations criticize the concurrent projects. "I think two identical projects will have difficulty sustaining themselves. It would be even worse if, after their opening, the city center becomes filled with vehicle traffic, which it is not prepared for," said Matěj Hon from the ProPolis association, which has sought to comment on the constructions, when announcing the first demolition. "We wanted to stimulate public debate in the city, which we somewhat succeeded in, but the resulting ideas have not resonated anywhere," he added.
While Třešňák promises a varied brick facade and respect for the street block, Gallery Teplice opts for futuristic shapes. Additionally, the footprint will likely be significantly larger, covering 1.6 hectares.