Prague will announce a tender for the completion of the future headquarters of the space agency

Prague - The Prague City Hall will announce a public tender for the completion of the unfinished building Nová Palmovka in Prague 8, where the headquarters of the European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) is set to move from Holešovice. The councilors decided on this today during their meeting, and the representatives will still vote on the announcement. The expected costs are 1.9 billion crowns excluding VAT, and the city will finance it. According to councilor Adam Zábranský (Pirates), the construction work is expected to last until 2026, and the agency is set to move in 2027. The preparation is the responsibility of the Prague Development Company (PDS), which has initiated so-called preliminary market consultations.

According to the approved document, Prague will award the contract using the so-called Design & Build method, which means that the selected company will take care of both the processing of project documentation and the actual construction. The Ministry of Finance will then rent the building from the city, which will provide the spaces for the agency. This institution has had its headquarters in the Czech Republic for 11 years and now resides in a building on Janovského street in Holešovice, which is already insufficient in capacity.

The agency is expected to move into the new building in 2027. "According to the contracts, EUSPA is set to move in 2027, so we must complete it by 2026 at the latest," said Zábranský.

The Nová Palmovka complex began construction nine years ago. The building was to house the new headquarters of the Prague 8 city hall and a shopping center or offices. However, a year later, work on the center, which cost more than a billion crowns, was suspended and has not been resumed. The building was taken over by the city hall from Prague 8, which originally planned to place a new headquarters for rescue services there, but eventually abandoned that idea. The city also plans to build a residential district in Palmovka.

The EUSPA agency manages, among other things, the operation of EU space programmes, including existing satellite and navigation projects such as Galileo, EGNOS, or Copernicus.