The city of Ostrava will negotiate with the Poles regarding the contract for the project of transforming the slaughterhouse

Ostrava - Ostrava will negotiate with the Polish studio KWK Promes Katowice about the contract for the project transforming the historic building of the former slaughterhouse near the city center, which finished third in the architectural competition. The city did not reach an agreement on the form of the contract with the winner of the competition, the Prague studio Petr Hájek Architekti, and removed the studio from the process. Mayor Tomáš Macura (ANO) said this to the reporters today. Architect Hájek expressed his regret about how the whole matter turned out.

The architectural competition was won by the Prague studio in spring. Subsequently, the city announced a so-called negotiation procedure without publication for the project development, in which the basic evaluation criteria were price and processing time. Only the winning Prague studio applied to this procedure, offering a price of 6.9 million crowns, along with the third Polish studio with a price of 15 million crowns, which not only offered a higher price but also a longer processing time.

"Mr. architect Hájek won the public contract for the development of project documentation, which included the complete wording of the draft contract as part of that procurement procedure. Mr. architect Hájek won that contract by making the best offer, both in terms of price and timing, and made absolutely no remarks regarding the contract itself while submitting the bid," noted Macura.

According to him, the city operates under the Public Procurement Act, and therefore could not proceed differently than to award the contract to Hájek without making any adjustments to the contract based on his subsequent remarks. The architect did not want to sign the contract in its current form. "Even if we wanted to, we cannot at this moment take that process back even a step and we must and also want to invite the next in line who submitted an offer under the announced selection procedure," said the mayor. Macura rejects the idea that the city bears any blame for the failed agreement with the winner of the architectural competition.

According to Hájek's statement today, the stance of the legal representatives of both parties involved differs. Unlike the city, Hájek and his lawyers believe that the city could so-called take a step back. After the bids were submitted, the negotiation procedure was closed, but if it were reopened, it would be possible to make adjustments to the contract.

Hájek added that he did not submit objections to the contract in time because he believed that the city would negotiate with the studio about the contract. "I was waiting for negotiations, while they were waiting for me to express my opinion," said Hájek. He stated that he read the contract, and because it was rather complicated, he wanted it to be reviewed by lawyers. He assumed that everything would continue to be negotiated. According to him, the contract had procedural defects and, in addition, he considers the draft contract to be unbalanced in terms of established rights and obligations, which were clearly formulated in favor of the client. Hájek stated that currently he sees no reason for the matter to be resolved through legal means.

The municipal slaughterhouse was established in 1881. However, in 1994, the municipal district of Moravská Ostrava and Přívoz sold the two-hectare land along with the slaughterhouse building to the company Bauhaus for over 38 million crowns. The company built its hobby market in close proximity to the slaughterhouse. However, the slaughterhouse deteriorated and was never repaired, and later the store also ceased to operate. The city has long sought to regain the monument-protected slaughterhouse, which it took over last September. It paid 80 million crowns for it and for the former Bauhaus store.