PPF bought Hotel Praha, will demolish it, and build a school here

Prague - The PPF Group has purchased the area of the Dejvice Hotel Prague. This was announced today by PPF spokesperson Radek Stavěl, who did not specify the value of the transaction. The group intends to demolish the hotel and use its garden for the project of a new primary and secondary school, Open Gate. Hotel Prague has changed owners this year; at the beginning of the year, the Cypriot company Maraflex, owned by entrepreneur František Savov, bought it.
    Although Maraflex has the same address as several companies in the PPF group, representatives of the group have previously denied owning the hotel through Maraflex.
    Maraflex had already planned to demolish Hotel Prague before PPF. According to them, the hotel was built so generously that its operation was not economically sustainable. The company wanted to build residential apartments in place of the hotel.
    According to the press, Maraflex owner Savov controls the publishing house Mladá Fronta and publishes several periodicals, such as the daily E15 and magazines Euro, Profit, Lidé a Země, Strategie, Sluníčko, or Mateřídouška. In the past, he has also been associated with deals concerning the property of the former Socialist Youth Union.
    Hotel Prague was opened in 1981 and originally served for foreign government visits. It stands on a generous plot of land of one hundred thousand square meters. It offers 136 rooms, a presidential suite of 370 square meters, and conference halls. A group of theorists, artists, architects, and conservationists submitted a proposal in February of this year to declare the hotel a cultural monument.