ČD may sell land to Penta near Masaryk Station

"These are currently unused areas where a commercial-administrative center should rise, along with green spaces and communications in accordance with the urban plan of the capital city of Prague, which would logically connect the Masaryk Station area and Florence across the highway," said the chairman of the supervisory board and Deputy Minister of Transport Milan Feranec.

Penta plans to start construction work at the end of next year. The entire project should then be completed within eight years, the company stated in a press release today.

Penta has a pre-emptive right to these lands from Czech Railways based on a contract from 2004. The contract also specifies the way in which the final price that Penta will pay Czech Railways for the land is determined. According to it, the carrier will be entitled to an amount of 7,200 crowns per square meter for future office and commercial spaces. The price is thus not determined by the size of the built-up land, but by the floor area of future administrative buildings that the city council will allow to be built on the land.

Penta intends to build a so-called Central Business District as part of the Masaryk Station Development project for billions of crowns. It compares it to London's City. Construction should take place in three locations around the station. The first block of buildings is planned to be built on Na Florenci Street opposite the Florentinum shopping center, which the company completed in 2013.

Already in the middle of last year, the company requested an assessment of the impact of the first construction project at Masaryk Station on the environment (EIA process). According to a document in the EIA database, the investor wants to build one of the first buildings with six to eight above-ground floors. There should be another two to three floors underground, which will serve as parking for up to 226 cars. There are plans for terraces on the roof.

The current 10,000 m² is just the beginning. Penta wants to buy land from Czech Railways exceeding an area of 22,000 m². In addition to the locality along Na Florenci Street, there are also plots on the opposite side of the highway and plots adjacent to the nearby Czech Post area. In total, this involves the sale of land for about 600 million crowns. The supervisory board of Czech Railways also agreed today to the preliminary sale of both mentioned plots.

According to the developer company, part of the agreement also includes the renovation of the station building at Masaryk Station, into which Penta has committed to invest 135 million crowns. In 2011, the company already renovated the roof of the arrival hall at the station for 60 million crowns. The railways plan to transfer this station to the Railway Infrastructure Administration (SŽDC) in the future. However, it is not yet included in the first wave of the transfer of railway buildings due to the unresolved sale of the land.