The supervisory board of ČD will meet at Masaryčka due to the sale of land

Prague - Czech Railways is intensifying its efforts to sell land around Masaryk Station. The next supervisory board meeting, which monitors the actions of the state carrier, will take place at Masaryk Station. Officially, this is so that particularly new members of the board can view the land on which the company Penta wants to build. ČTK was informed about this by the chairman of the supervisory board and also the deputy minister of transport, Milan Feranec.
    "The current state is unsustainable for both Czech Railways and the investor," stated another member of the supervisory board and chairman of the Railway Workers' Union (OSŽ), Jaroslav Pejša. According to him, the decade-long disputes about when and in what form construction will take place on the land adjacent to the station should reach some resolution in the near future.
    Czech Railways did not comment on any potential progress in negotiations, stating that the carrier's management is still in talks with Penta and that any conclusions are premature. However, according to Feranec, the target state is already clear. "I am convinced that we should sell the land. Czech Railways is not a development company and should be focused on what it is intended for. And that is operating public transport," said the deputy who is responsible for railway issues at the Ministry of Transport.
    Following last year's change to the zoning plan, which established precise parameters for possible construction, Penta lost interest in purchasing the entire area and is now only interested in about half of the original area, according to the group's spokesperson, Martin Danko. It is primarily about the land located parallel to Na Florenci Street, where a strip allowing for the construction of office buildings is situated.
    The extent of construction is also complicated by the fact that a metro tunnel runs beneath this area. According to the assessment, this fact does not allow for the construction of a building higher than five to seven stories. Therefore, it should not be higher than the nine-story office building Florentina, which Penta built on the opposite side of Na Florenci Street.
    The price that, according to the existing contract, the developer is to pay Czech Railways is determined by the size of the building and the area of the floors. Initially, the investor expected to pay the railways 900 million CZK for 125,000 square meters of floor space for future buildings based on a prescribed formula. Thus, for each square meter of land, the company offers Czech Railways 20,000 CZK, Danko previously stated.
    Without the acceptance of this contract, Czech Railways' negotiating position would be more favorable, noted another member of the supervisory board, Vladislav Vokoun. Because the carrier cannot continue to negotiate the price, it has only one option left in the negotiations, which is to delay the sale further. Any potential sale, which the supervisory body, according to his estimate, will not approve before the holidays, will still need to be validated by the owner of Czech Railways - that is, the state through the steering committee.
    Determining the standard price for building land in the center of Prague is not easy; there are not many comparable locations, and the specific price is significantly influenced by the particular location or the extent of the floor area that can be constructed on the site. The record price for land was achieved by the Prague magistrate in 2005 when they sold land in an undeveloped gap at the corner of Národní and Mikulandská Streets. At that time, the price per square meter reached nearly 235,000 CZK.