J&T will build new offices in Prague at Florenc for 130 million CZK

photo: QARTA ARCHITEKTURA

Prague - The development company J&T Real Estate from the J&T group will commence construction of a new office building named S9 Florenc in Prague's Florenc area later this year. The total investment will amount to approximately 130 million crowns. The company plans to complete the construction by the beginning of 2014. Representatives of J&T Real Estate announced this today at a press conference.
      The building will be constructed on the site of a residential building that was demolished after the floods in 2002. S9 Florenc will offer 2,700 square meters of office space upon completion. J&T Real Estate expects to sell the building in the future, said Commercial Director Martin Kodeš.
      J&T is starting the construction speculatively, without pre-arranged tenants. By the smaller size of its project in Florenc, J&T aims to attract a certain type of companies. "With its character and size, this is a building destined for a confident company that doesn’t want to blend in with many others,” said Eduard Forejt, head of the office property department at real estate consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle.
      Near Florenc, there are already several other office buildings, and the Penta group is currently building a massive office building in the area as well. Its project Florentinum will cost around five billion crowns and will offer 49,000 square meters of office space for rent.
      The value of J&T Real Estate's real estate portfolio at the end of last year was approximately 671 million euros, or about 17 billion crowns. The company aims to build long-term, for example, in Prague near Invalidovna. The original project for the construction of the Rustonka shopping center is now being changed by the developer. There will ultimately be fewer shops at the site of the former Prague engineering works, while offices will take precedence, Kodeš told ČTK today.
      A completely different outcome was also achieved for another Prague project by J&T Real Estate for a complex of high-rise office buildings named Tower City Holešovice. "We received a good offer, so we sold the project," noted Kodeš.
      The Prague office market accelerated its decline in the second quarter. Compared to the same period last year, companies rented 29 percent less office space, and the market decreased by 11 percent quarter-on-quarter.