Completion of the Nová Palmovka Center in Prague 8 will cost 2.62 billion CZK

Prague - The completion and reconstruction of the unfinished building of the Nová Palmovka Center in Prague 8 into the headquarters of the European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) will cost the city hall approximately 2.62 billion crowns. The construction work will be carried out by the company Porr, which won the tender. This is indicated in a document approved by the Prague councilors today. The project for the building, which was supposed to house the Prague 8 city hall and commercial premises, was approved in 2010 and the construction is still not completed. The incomplete building was handed over to the city hall by the municipality.

The builders will complete the building using the so-called design&build method, where the contractor creates the project and carries out the construction themselves. The selected contractor will also ensure the documentation for the removal of certain parts of the building or provide project preparations for the construction work that do not require changes and create the project for the completion. They will take care of all permits and complete the building.

According to a statement from April by Deputy Mayor Petr Hlaváček (STAN), the completion of the building in Palmovka is important for the city for several reasons. Firstly, it is about urbanistically completing Palmovka, as the incomplete building and its immediate surroundings are, in his view, "a sore on the face of Prague." At the same time, having the EUSPA headquarters in the city is prestigious and important for the development of the industry in the Czech Republic according to the city hall's leadership.

Construction of the building in Palmovka began in 2014 by Prague 8, with plans for it to house the city hall complemented by a shopping center. However, a year later, work on the construction, worth more than a billion crowns, was halted and workers have not resumed since. After long negotiations, the city hall took over the building from Prague 8 in 2021 and subsequently considered placing the ambulance service headquarters there. Ultimately, an agreement was reached with the state and EUSPA, whose current headquarters in Holešovice can no longer accommodate its capacity.