The developer group Karlin Group has disbanded

The administrative building KEYSTONE at the corner of Pobřežní and Šaldova streets was designed by Mathias Müller and Daniel Niggli from the Swiss architectural office EM2N.

Prague - The group of development companies under the banner Karlin Group, which has overseen the renewal projects in Prague's Karlín over the past decade, has disbanded, making the construction of New Karlín a thing of the past. This has shattered the urban vision for the 50 hectares of land, where just three years ago developer Serge Borenstein planned to invest billions of crowns. The daily E15 reports this today.
    "In the portfolio of Karlin Group, only the planned office building Corso IIb and the former ČKD halls remain, which we sold to Zdeněk Bakala at the end of last year, but we will carry out their reconstruction," Borenstein told E15, who has been trying to bring world architects to Prague for his plans. E15 states that the sale of Thámova Hall also definitively ended the recent proposal to build a Gourmet Palace gourmet shopping center in part of it.
    E15 informs that part of the land for additional projects was taken by Borenstein's former partners from M2 Real Estate after the division of Karlin Group. "We completed the division at the end of last year. We own the land for the previously planned office building Cubus and part of the area on Pernerova Street," confirmed M2's executive director Petr Soukup.
    Borenstein, who according to E15 lost his financial source from a foreign investor last year, is gradually disposing of other projects that were under the banner of Karlin Group. "Two weeks ago we sold part of the River Gardens project to Karo, which is a new investor who has entered the residential market," Borenstein stated. He had previously sold the office parts of River Gardens to Premium Red and HB Reavis.
    "There is still land left for the construction of several hundred apartments. I now own it half with my partner, who is Thomas Samii from Ungelt Partners," Borenstein emphasized.
    E15 recalls that the Karlín empire began to scale back even before the flow of foreign money dried up. In 2007, Borenstein admitted that Karlin Group could not handle all the planned construction, and thus sold the nearby Libeň Docks to the development company Crestyl. Two years ago he got rid of the project for the office building Crystal, which was acquired by AFI Europe.
    Although dozens of employees, including its most prominent figure, commercial director Milorad Mišković, left Karlin Group last year, Borenstein has further plans with the remaining small group of close collaborators, E15 continues. "We are finalizing negotiations for the sale of the Keystone building to a foreign real estate fund," Borenstein announces the successful completion of the construction of one of the few office buildings that began to be built in Prague last year.
    At the same time, according to E15, he is not giving up on his plans in Prague's Modřany. "A few days ago, we decided on the further use of the Microna building, which we want to convert into low-cost offices," Borenstein claims. In previous years, he planned to convert Microna into loft apartments according to the design by architect Josef Pleskot, and another ultimately unrealized plan was to establish the headquarters of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes and the Archive of Security Forces there.