People will shop for the last time today at Kotva in Prague 1, it will close for reconstruction

Prague – Customers can visit the Kotva department store in Prague 1 for the last time today. The reason is the reconstruction of the building, which will see luxury shops established on the lower floors and offices on the upper floors. The surroundings of Kotva will also change, with the current entrance to the grocery store disappearing, for example. The reconstruction will last two years. This was stated today by Prague 1 councilor Karel Grabein Procházka and spokesperson for the Institute of Planning and Development (IPR) Marek Vácha. The building currently features advertising notices about sales and liquidation. Some shops inside have already been vacated.

The owner of the building has been Generali Real Estate since 2020, which purchased it from PSN. The seven-story building, with a total area of 28,000 m², was opened in 1975.

The form of the building should essentially remain preserved, according to the councilor, but it will be necessary to remediate the asbestos in the facade, for example. Grabein Procházka stated that the investor is cooperating with Prague 1 and will also be concluding an agreement with the magistrate, according to his information. The actual reconstruction should then begin. "The expectation is that it will take about two years," he said.

Significant changes are expected in the internal layout. "It will no longer be purely a department store, but there will be offices on some floors," stated Grabein Procházka. He added that shops providing essential civic amenities should remain intact. The agreement reached between the city hall and the building owner concerns especially the adjustments of public spaces in the vicinity and also the operation of a restaurant with a terrace that is to be created on the seventh floor.

A marked transformation awaits the area surrounding the department store. "Our main interest is to significantly improve the public spaces around the building compared to their current state. The investor and the architects of the reconstruction share the same view, and we have been discussing this with them for some time now," Vácha stated.

The current entrance from Náměstí republiky to the Albert store in the basement of Kotva will be eliminated. A new entrance will be constructed, featuring a circular shape and located elsewhere. "In the first or second quarter of this year, the investor plans to hold public participation regarding the public space around the house, in which we will be involved," Vácha shared. The space at the entrance from the other side towards Jakubská street will also be adjusted.

The Kotva department store opened in 1975 as an example of a luxurious Czechoslovak department store. At the time of its operation, Kotva was the fifth largest department store in Europe, with a sales area of 22,160 square meters, capable of serving up to 75,000 customers daily thanks to 2,000 employees. The department store is classified as part of the so-called second generation of Czech department stores. The building, designed as a series of connected hexagons, was created according to the design of architects Věra Machoninová and Vladimír Machonin and is considered one of the most significant Czech buildings from the first half of the 1970s.

Kotva and other department stores after 1989 had to face newly emerging modern shopping centers. The department store struggled for a long time with insufficient interest in leasing retail spaces, with some floors remaining vacant.