The minister abolished the heritage protection of Kotva, the proceedings are held again

Prague - Minister of Culture Antonín Staněk (Social Democrats) canceled the declaration of the Kotva department store as a cultural monument. In response to a query from ČTK, the ministry's spokesperson Martha Häckl stated this. According to the office, he did this because the owner of the building changed during the procedure that determines the granting of monument protection. The ministry was not informed of the change by either the original or the new owner. The new owner is the company Pražská správa nemovitostí (PSN) of billionaire Václav Skala. According to earlier information from the ministry, the proceedings regarding the Kotva began in September 2016; the media reported on the sale of Kotva as early as February of that year.

Staněk, acting as the appellate body, returned the matter to the ministry's heritage officials, who are expected to decide soon, according to the spokesperson. Last week, PSN announced its intention to reconstruct Kotva at a cost in the billions of crowns. According to the law, the owner must protect the property from damage and destruction until a decision is made and must also inform the ministry of any intended or completed change in ownership, management, or use of the property. Essentially, they must treat the property, which may potentially show heritage values, as a monument.

The heritage department of the Ministry of Culture has been assessing whether Kotva should become a monument since September 2016. Last year, it declared it a monument; this was the second proceeding, as the first proposal in 2007 was rejected.

Kotva was built according to the design of architects Věra and Vladimír Machonin from 1970 to 1975 and is considered one of the most interesting Czechoslovak buildings of the 1970s. Its floor plan resembles a beehive and consists of several interlocked hexagons. Like other traditional department stores, however, since the 1990s it has suffered from relative disinterest from shoppers and tenants due to new shopping centers, despite its lucrative location in the city center. PSN has now stated that it is open to other investors during the reconstruction of Kotva.

In the 1990s, shares of Kotva in the coupon privatization later fell to the embezzled Trend fund, whose founders included businessman Skala at that time. In 2005, Kotva was acquired by the Irish group Markland. PSN bought the property from them in 2016 in a tender organized by the Irish state consolidation agency NAMA, reportedly for a price exceeding 80 million euros (around 2.2 billion crowns at that time).

"During the first-instance proceedings, the owner changed - the previous owner failed to fulfill their legal obligation to inform the ministry of the change in ownership. The new owner chose the same representative in the proceedings as the previous one, but this representative also did not communicate that they now represent a different owner," the ministry stated.

The new owner then filed an appeal against the decision to designate Kotva as a monument, claiming they were overlooked. "Although their representative carried out actions in the proceedings, it was unclear whom they represented," the office claims. The minister therefore canceled the decision of his heritage department for the sake of legal certainty and referred the matter back to the same department. "The proceedings have continued since then, actions required by the administrative procedure have taken place, and we expect the issuance of the first-instance decision soon," Häckl stated.

Last week, the owner of Kotva announced that the department store is awaiting approximately a year-long reconstruction, set to begin next year. The director of the Prague branch of the National Heritage Institute (NPÚ) Ondřej Šefců told ČTK that the institute approved the reconstruction with conditions. According to him, there were objections to certain changes in the layout, demolition of ceilings, the replacement of the facade, and advertising elements on the ground floor. However, the binding opinion necessary for obtaining a permit is issued by the heritage department of the city hall.