Prague 12 will sign a contract for the construction of a new town hall

Prague - The new city hall of Prague 12 will be built for 437.7 million crowns excluding VAT by a consortium of companies Klement and Geosan Group. The winners of the tender were approved by the councilor today. The selection of the contractor was criticized by councilors at the meeting due to the requested reduction in the number of parking spaces and lack of transparency.

After signing the contract, the contractor will begin preparing the documentation for zoning proceedings within one month. Construction is set to start in 2019, with commissioning planned two years later. The new city hall is to be located between Písková and Generála Šišky streets, not far from one of the current buildings of the city district. The Modřany city hall currently utilizes seven buildings scattered throughout Prague 12. The council also instructed the city district management to process pedestrian access from the city hall area to the nearby Sofijské náměstí.

The selection committee chose the consortium of Klement and Geosan Group as the winner with the lowest submitted bid of 437.7 million crowns excluding VAT. The capital city will lend a quarter of a billion crowns to the city hall, which will be repaid over 14 years starting in 2023. The rest will be funded from its own resources.

The criterion for selecting the contractor was 90 percent based on price. A total of seven participants initially registered for the tender, five submitted projects, and one was excluded for failing to meet the tender conditions. The tender took the form of a competitive dialogue in which the city district gradually refined the contract specifications together with the participants.

Based on the requirements of the city hall, the construction contractors will try to obtain an exception from the Prague Building Regulations (PSP), which require the construction of a significantly larger number of parking spaces than the originally proposed 120 by the city hall. "If we succeed in obtaining an exemption from the PSP, so that we do not have to build an expensive underground parking lot, the price will be reduced by about 137 million. However, the probability of success is not very high," said Deputy Mayor Jan Marhoul (ČSSD).

Opposition councilors criticized the selection of the contractor at the meeting. Former mayor and a councilor of the city district until the recent coalition collapse, Daniela Rázková (Change for Prague 12), described the selection as non-transparent, as councilors did not have access to data on the selection process and bids from other applicants. According to the city hall management, they had all the important facts available and that rejected bids cannot be published due to copyright issues.

Rázková and several other opposition councilors also criticized the plan to limit the number of parking spaces. According to them, the city district needs to offer citizens parking near the city hall, and it is also strange to close a contract of such high value with two possible prices.

The original historical town hall of old Modřany was demolished in the 1980s. The plan, which considered the building of Prior for officials at Sofijské náměstí, was announced by the city hall management in 2007. At that time, the project was estimated to cost between 340 to 390 million crowns. This variant did not materialize. An analysis of further options, which the city district subsequently had prepared, recommended the area between Písková and Generála Šišky streets as the most advantageous from the city-owned land.