The fantasy building at the main train station belongs to SŽDC, the court decided

Prague - The historic Fantova building at Prague's main train station belongs to the Railway Administration and Transport Path (SŽDC), which purchased the building from Czech Railways (ČD) last year. This was decided today by the District Court for Prague 2, which rejected a lawsuit from the Italian company Grandi Stazioni, with which SŽDC ended cooperation after acquiring the station. The company challenged the transfer of the station in the lawsuit and sought a ruling from the court that the station still belongs to ČD or the state, on behalf of which SŽDC administers the property. The court's decision is not final; an appeal can be made against it.

Grandi Stazioni was supposed to have rented the main station for 30 years based on a contract from 2003, provided it could complete the reconstruction of the entire building by October 16 last year. However, it did not succeed, and SŽDC subsequently refused to extend the lease. The railway administration's step led to legal disputes and interrupted the reconstruction.

In the lawsuit addressed by the court today, Grandi Stazioni contested the validity of the contract for the transfer of the station. It sought a determination of whether the historic building belongs to SŽDC or still to its original owner, Czech Railways.

According to the Italian company, the transfer of the station is flawed because the contract between ČD and SŽDC does not sufficiently determine the purchase price and is against European public support rules. "For these reasons, we have serious doubts about whether the transfer occurred," said lawyer Daniel Weinhold during the final statement presentation.

Judge Otília Hrehová dismissed the lawsuit, stating that the proven owner of the building is SŽDC, which is listed in the real estate register and paid the purchase price for the property. She added that the Italian company is not facing any specific harm arising from the change of ownership of the property.

In addition to the ownership of the historic Fantova building, Grandi Stazioni contested the transfer of the new check-in hall to the railway administration. The third lawsuit concerns compensation of more than 770 million as reimbursement for invested money in the station's reconstruction.

From this amount, SŽDC paid the company 565 million crowns last year as eligible costs for the partial reconstruction of the station. The company then reduced the requested sum to approximately 210 million crowns. In the last lawsuit, the company is seeking around 1.26 billion crowns for lost profits from further rental of the station spaces.