Plzeň offers developers a valuable location of the former Světovar barracks

Plzeň - Plzeň offers developers a valuable location of the former Světovar barracks in the prestigious Slovany district. Hundreds of apartments and spaces for shops and services are to be created there. This concerns roughly two-thirds of the six-hectare area, while the remaining part will be transformed from the former brewery into a cultural center and archive. The city council must announce a public competition no later than June, said the mayor’s assistant Petr Rund (ODS) to ČTK.
   "The councilors approved the intention to sell the development land and its construction according to the D3A study commissioned by the city last December. The estimated price of the land there is 3,700 crowns per m²," he stated. According to the decision of the councilors, the council must initiate steps to gradually sell the area as soon as possible. In addition to announcing a public competition, the land is also being offered on the city's real estate website, at various trade fairs, presentations, and during contacts with potential investors. "So far, we have not received any serious offers," Rund mentioned. However, there was interest in the area as recently as 2009.
    The decisive factors will be the offered price and what the developers wish to build there. "We want there to be apartment buildings and services on the ground floor, that is what is in the D3A study," he stated.
    The city is currently discussing how to set up general relations with all future investors on its territory. They are increasingly wanting to buy city land in advance or at a certain stage of construction. "With the change in the civil code, contractual relationships must be set up so that it is even possible to implement these projects in the city. It is no longer possible to register parts of a building in the land registry, so the so-called building right is being introduced," Rund stated. According to him, the financing banks require that the investor buy the land in advance before they provide funding. Investors do not want to finance projects for which agreements are, for example, for land acquisition only after the building is approved.
    Construction of the archive and the cultural factory 4x4, focusing on alternative culture, began in the barracks in December. Both buildings are to be completed by April 2015, the year when Plzeň will become the European Capital of Culture. The EU-funded project will cost more than a quarter of a billion crowns. It will also include networks extending up to the borders of the land on which the selected developer will build apartments and shops.