In the center of Zlín, the demolition of the former bank building has begun; a high-rise building will be constructed on the site

Zlín - The demolition of the former bank building has begun in the center of Zlín. In its place, behind the Zlín Department Store, the main shareholder of the PSG construction group, Juraj Surovič, plans to build a 16-story high-rise building with offices, rental housing, a hotel, and an observation terrace on the roof. The Prospect project will cost just under a billion Czech korunas. The demolition is expected to be completed by mid-August, before the Barum Czech Rally Zlín takes place in the city. Construction of Prospect could start at the beginning of next year. Surovič told reporters this today.

"It is an assumption based on the idea that it won’t get stuck in the offices," he stated. "Currently, design work is being done, which should be completed by the end of the summer, and in September, we would like to submit the project documentation to the authorities and apply for a process that should lead to the issuance of the project permit by the end of the year," Surovič said. Work is underway, for example, on the design of the facade.

The Prospect will consist of a high-rise building and a nearby lower structure that will house a hotel with 80 rooms. There will be 58 apartments and 3,700 square meters of office space, along with a restaurant, an underground parking lot with about two hundred parking spaces, and a pedestrian zone. The high-rise building will be 58 meters tall and will be the second tallest structure in the city after the Baťa skyscraper.

In particular, against this height, the conservationists from the Kroměříž department of the National Heritage Institute protested in April this year after the presentation of Prospect. They were concerned that it would disrupt the panorama of the city's heritage zone in Zlín and threaten the current landmarks in both nearby and distant views. According to the conservationists, the Zlín Department of Culture and Heritage Care will be responsible for approving the project, and they will provide expert commentary on it. "We will try to convince the conservationists with our architectural designs and the project that height is not the only measure of whether the project has a dominant presence or not," Surovič said today. He emphasized the shape and slenderness of the high-rise building. "We will try to convince them that there is nothing in the given space that should not be there, but rather, that it has its place here," Surovič stated. The city architect's office agrees with the proposal. The project has also been praised by Zlín Mayor Jiří Korec (ANO).

The former bank building, constructed in the 1990s, and its surroundings are fenced off due to demolition, with part of the sidewalk and parking lot blocked off. It is located in the area between Práce Square and Gahura Avenue. Nearby are the Great Cinema, Interhotel Zlín, the Zlín Department Store, and the buildings of former Baťovských dormitories. The construction workers will not work on weekends and will sprinkle the area to mitigate dust. The object no longer has a facade or roof, and equipment, including safes, one weighing 3.7 tons, had to be removed. "We would like to demolish the building in about a month and then spend another two weeks on land leveling, so that it is clean after us," said Michal Pohl, director of the PSG Construction plant in Otrokovice. The skeleton of the building will be cut and gradually removed, with plans for about 15 trucks to operate daily for approximately three weeks.