Jihlava signed a contract with the company GEMO for the construction of an arena for 1.9 billion crowns.

Jihlava - Jihlava's mayor Petr Ryška (ODS) today signed a contract for the construction of the Horácká Multifunctional Arena (HMA) with the Olomouc company GEMO. In the tender, this company submitted the lowest bid of 1.9 billion crowns excluding VAT. The contract was signed on behalf of GEMO by the holding's owner Jaromír Uhýrek. The town hall informed about this in a press release on the website. If construction begins as expected, the arena could be completed by the autumn of 2025.

According to the contract, GEMO is obliged to demolish the old ice rink and build a new multifunctional hall within 26 months of the construction start. "I firmly believe that we will continue to move forward and that there will be no significant complications," stated the mayor. According to him, the demolition could begin in mid-summer.

The town hall stated that GEMO is one of the leading players in the domestic construction market, having completed hundreds of projects worth tens of billions of crowns. This year, it expects a turnover of over six billion.

Today, representatives of the city and the region also signed a contract for a regional subsidy of half a billion crowns for the construction of the arena, which both councils approved this week. Jihlava expects an additional 300 million crowns for the arena from the National Sports Agency.

Next week, archaeological research will begin ahead of the demolition of the old ice rink. According to the city's expectations, it will last three months.

Jihlava received five price offers for the construction of the arena last year, and the results of the tender were published at the beginning of this March. The town hall had initially anticipated an earlier contract signing. Objections against the decision regarding the choice of builder were submitted by the consortium Metrostav DIZ, OHLA ŽS, and Podzimek, which were unsuccessful with their bid. After receiving clarification from the city, they did not further challenge the process.

Further delays were caused by objections from residents of three houses on Tyršova Street near the stadium against the new issuance of the demolition order, and then also their objections due to possible systemic bias of the Jihlava building authority and the regional office. The conditions under which these individuals would withdraw their objections were approved by the Jihlava councilors on Thursday. The original demolition order ceased to be valid last year.

In addition to GEMO, bidders for the arena's construction included the consortium of firms Syner and Geosan Group with a price of 1.988 billion CZK and HMA - Metrostav DIZ, OHLA ŽS, Podzimek with a bid of 2.083 billion CZK. BAK construction company, a.s., offered to build the arena for 2.199 billion CZK and PKS stavby for 2.242 billion CZK. These are offers excluding VAT.