Prague is preparing an agreement regarding the land under the "marshmallow"

Prague - The Prague City Hall is finalizing an agreement regarding the land under the residential project near the Abbey of St. Agnes in the Old Town, whose previous version earned the nickname marshmallow. As Councilor Jan Chabr (TOP 09) said in an interview with ČTK, the city should acquire apartments in other parts of Prague for half of the land under the building, which it owns. The project was purchased from the original Italian investors in 2018 by the company V Invest, which then presented a redesigned version of the building.

The residential building on U Milosrdných street has been planned for over 20 years. The original Italian investor Francesco Augusto Razetto previously came up with a design, which featured visuals with a facade in white and pink colors. Accordingly, the project received the nickname marshmallow and faced a wave of criticism. After taking over the project, V Invest came up with a new design, created by the author of the original proposal, architect Zdeněk Fránek.

The commitment to sell city-owned land totaling 860 square meters is, according to Chabr, enshrined in the original contract from 1999. An associated preemptive agreement from 2007 set the price of the land at 27,750 crowns per square meter. The city has now had a new valuation conducted, which appraised the parcels at 57,432 crowns per square meter, the councilor stated.

According to him, the city should obtain apartments instead of money from the company, the cost of which would correspond to the value of the parcels. However, they will not be part of the project itself, as Chabr stated that these would be luxury apartments in the city center, which do not fit into the city's housing policy. The investor is thus to prepare an offer for more apartments in cheaper locations. "If the proposed offer of apartments does not seem advantageous to the city, then we can proceed with a classic financial transaction," the councilor explained.

City councilors were supposed to vote on the agreement as early as the beginning of December, but ultimately postponed the decision. According to Chabr, this was due to the comments from some colleagues on the council, who stated that the contract should guarantee, for example, that the apartments in the building near the Abbey of St. Agnes will not be used for short-term accommodation purposes through platforms like Airbnb. The councilors are expected to vote on the agreement after this requirement is incorporated into the contractual documents.