Construction of a skyscraper and offices worth 3.5 billion will start at Pankráci.

Prague - The developer company ECM Real Estate Investments will begin construction of the high-rise residential building City Epoque and two office buildings City Element and City Deco in Pankrác, Prague in the coming weeks. The total investment volume will exceed 3.5 billion crowns, the company announced today in a press release to ČTK.
    In Pankrác, 125 apartments, apartments, and penthouses will be created, and the area of new offices will be larger than 23,000 m².
    "After consolidating all available internal financial resources and resources obtained from the market, we are proceeding with the realization of the best-prepared, ambitious project City Pankrác. Delaying its realization would negatively affect the project's economics and the company," said the chairman of the board of ECM REI, Milan Janků.
    On the other hand, the developer has decided to postpone the construction of the administrative building City Court in the same location. "It is promising for the future, but we believe that in terms of current demand, it is not appropriate to realize it. Therefore, we have postponed it for the current period. We will wait until the demand situation improves," Janků said in an interview for today's Lidové noviny.
    Hospodářské noviny reported last week that the project of the skyscraper City Epoque is becoming complicated for the developer due to uncertainties in the ownership of the construction land that have newly emerged. It has come to light that part of the land is owned by the state. "We are negotiating with the duplicate owner, which is the state through the Institute of Territorial Development, about a possible settlement," said the head of ECM REI in Lidové noviny. The error occurred in the property registry. Janků does not consider that his company would have to pay for the land again, but he did not rule it out either. "However, we have already properly paid for this land, so we would not like to pay for this part a second time," he added in the newspaper.
    Janků founded ECM in 1991. Currently, the company with shares on the Prague stock exchange is controlled through ECM Group. Together with the PPF group, Janků is creating the real estate PPF ECM Holding, although ECM REI was ultimately not included in the joint venture. In addition to the Czech Republic, ECM REI also operates in Russia and China.
    For the first three quarters of 2009, ECM REI deepened its loss to 28.08 million euros, or about 731 million crowns. In the same period of 2008, the company had a loss of 22.15 million euros (around 576 million crowns). The total results for last year will be published by the company on April 28.