The Skloexport building in Liberec is going up for auction again, the region will not be among the interested parties.

Archive of Jaroslav Zeman, www.liberec-reichenberg.net

Liberec - The Office for Representation of the State in Property Affairs (ÚZSVM) is preparing a second round of electronic auction for the unused Skloexport building in Liberec. It will begin on Tuesday, December 20, and end the following day. After the unsuccessful auction in November, when the only interested party did not submit a bid, the office lowered the starting price by approximately 15 percent to 67 million crowns. However, even after the price reduction, the Liberec Region will not participate in the auction, said governor Martin Půta (Mayors for the Liberec Region) in response to ČTK's inquiry.

"I think that the building, which was built by the Czechoslovak state as an administrative building during the First Republic, will be difficult for anyone to convert into something else. Principally, in the long term, there should be a financial office there, the regional police headquarters should be located there, and ideally also other state institutions that are present in the regional city of Liberec. I believe the main problem is that each ministry has its own property management, and they never agree on anything," said Půta.

The seven-story Skloexport building was constructed according to the design of 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, and the company went bankrupt in the second half of the 1990s. The state took over the building in 2001, and the last tenants left the complex eight years later. The state has been unsuccessfully trying to sell the complex with a floor area of 9,357 square meters since 2008. According to estimates, it needs renovations costing more than half a billion crowns.

The Liberec governor has long criticized the way the state manages its property. In the hundred-thousand-strong city of Liberec, there is a dilapidated Skloexport building in a lucrative location near the bus and train station, for which there is no use, while the financial office is located just a few hundred meters away in rented premises from a private entity. The labor office also occupied rented premises for years and ultimately purchased a building in the neighborhood from a private owner, which it had renovated for hundreds of millions.

According to ÚZSVM spokeswoman Michaela Tesařová, no state institution has expressed interest in the building, so the office is seeking a new owner through a transparent electronic auction. The complex was owned by the General Financial Directorate for years. It was first offered in August 2008, when a court expert set the minimum price at 84.6 million crowns, but no interested party was found. The complex could not be sold in subsequent years either, as the price gradually decreased to 45 million crowns. In May 2020, the building was transferred to ÚZSVM. The first electronic auction took place on November 15 and 16, but the house did not sell.

The city of Liberec had previously expressed interest in the Skloexport building. It wanted to acquire it free of charge, but could not reach an agreement with the state, and in January, the city councilors rejected the purchase for 67 million crowns. The Liberec Region aimed to convert the building in the spring to accommodate up to 500 Ukrainian refugees, but it also failed. "I think that at this time and for this money, the building will not be sold," added the Liberec governor.