The unused Skloexport building in Liberec will be auctioned

Archive of Jaroslav Zeman, www.liberec-reichenberg.net

Liberec - The long-unused building of the former Skloexport in Liberec will go up for auction next week, with the state wanting more than 79 million crowns for it. Attempts to sell it have been ongoing since 2008. The Office for State Representation in Property Matters (ÚZSVM) announced a selection procedure with an electronic auction that will take place from November 15 to 16. A prerequisite for participation is an eight-million-crown deposit. Neither the Liberec region nor the city of Liberec will participate in the auction, ČTK found out.

The building was offered to the city of Liberec by the ÚZSVM in January for 67 million crowns, but the councilors rejected the purchase at that time. According to estimates, the site needs a complete renovation costing more than half a billion crowns. Participation in the auction would now have to be approved by the council. "The auction came at an inconvenient time for us after the constitutive council; it would mean calling an extraordinary council, but we are not at all agreed on the budget, so that would be problematic," said Liberec Mayor Jaroslav Zámečník (Mayors for the Liberec Region) to ČTK.

Zámečník is not worried that the building could be bought by some "poverty trader" and turned into a hostel. "In the zoning plan that we approved in February this year, we designated the building as an area with public services," he said. A change in the zoning plan would be necessary for residential purposes. Additionally, adjustments for housing would be very demanding and expensive due to health and fire regulations. "We realized this when we wanted to adapt the building for the accommodation of refugees in the spring," added Governor Martin Půta (Mayors for the Liberec Region).

The region wanted to accommodate up to 500 Ukrainian refugees in the building in the spring, but the state could not agree on a gratuitous transfer of the property. According to Půta, the region will not participate in the auction now. "I wrote to the minister (Zdeňek Stanjura (ODS)) asking them not to sell the building," said the governor to ČTK. He believes that the building, which was built years ago for officials, should serve state authorities. For instance, the tax office is renting premises in a private owner's building for expensive money while the state owns a building in a lucrative location in the city just a few steps away.

The seven-story Skloexport building was built according to the design of architect František Vahala at the corner of Žitavská and 1. máje streets between 1928 and 1930 for the tax and customs administration. The world-renowned exporter of Czech glass acquired it during the communist regime; the company went bankrupt in the late 1990s. The state took over the building in 2001, and the last tenants left the site eight years later. All attempts to sell the site, which has a floor area of 9,357 square meters, have ended in failure.

For years, the building belonged to the General Financial Directorate. It was first offered in August 2008 when a court expert set the minimum price at 84.6 million crowns, but no interested buyers were found. The attempt to sell the property failed in subsequent years as well, with the price gradually decreasing to 45 million crowns. In May 2020, the ÚZSVM took over the building; according to the office's spokesperson Michaela Tesařová, no state institution expressed interest in the building, which is why the office is looking for a new owner through a transparent electronic auction.