There are three dozen interested buyers for the Jindřišská Tower in the center of Prague

Prague - As of today, the Prague archbishopric has recorded around 30 interested parties in the Jindřišská Tower, which it has decided to sell. Jan Balík, the general vicar of the Prague archdiocese, said this to ČTK today. According to him, Prague has also submitted a purchase offer. The deadline for submitting offers ends on January 8, and Balík does not expect the number of interested parties to increase significantly. He assumes that the medieval tower in the center of Prague could have a new owner within six months.

At the end of last year, the Prague archbishopric decided to sell the tourist-attractive tower, which does not serve religious purposes, as unnecessary and economically disadvantageous property. They offered it for 75 million crowns; according to Balík, the number of offers today has increased the price to over one hundred million crowns.

Not all of the approximately 30 interested parties signed confidentiality agreements, according to the vicar, and those will be excluded from the selection of buyers. Given the number of interested parties, the sale process will probably be multi-round, he added. The current tenant of the tower, the Jindřišská věž company, which has a fixed-term contract until the end of 2044, should also participate in the narrower round.

According to Balík's earlier statement, the tower requires an investment of about 20 to 30 million crowns for repairs. For the church, it would be a mistake at this moment because even if they secured a grant, they would have to provide most of the funding themselves, he stated. He indicated that the long-term tenant has increased the value of the building. According to the advertisement text, an internal space construction was performed in the tower in 2001, on which the individual floors are placed.

With the new economic setup, the church is trying to prepare for the time when it will stop receiving funds from the state for its activities starting in 2030. The Prague archdiocese has decided to invest in rental housing in Prague. They aim to invest nearly three billion crowns by 2025 and plan to have a thousand apartments. This will involve the purchase of new properties, repairs of apartment buildings, and their own development.

Another source of income for the archbishopric should be forestry, while they want to rid themselves of difficult-to-manage assets. In addition to the Jindřišská Tower, the archbishopric is also considering the sale of the Clara Futura hotel in Dolní Břežany, which was renovated several years ago for a quarter of a billion. The hotel's operation is unprofitable.