The Property Office sold the former headquarters of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes (ÚSTR) in Prague's Žižkov district for 387 million crowns

Prague - The former seat of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes (ÚSTR) in Prague's Žižkov district was sold at auction for 387 million crowns. The winner of the electronic auction was a legal entity, reported the Office for Representation of the State in Property Matters (ÚZSVM). The sale price significantly exceeded the starting bid; ÚZSVM originally offered the remnants of the building and two plots of land for 79.12 million crowns. This is evident from data on the auction website. This sale is the third most successful since the agency was established. Prague retained the right to match the final price, but according to councilman Adam Zábranský (Pirates), it is unlikely to do so.

The property office had already offered the City of Prague the opportunity to match the highest bid from the electronic auction before the auction took place. "Therefore, ÚZSVM will now approach the city to match the highest bid from the tender, which is 387 million crowns. If it does not do so, ÚZSVM will conclude a contract with the winner of the electronic auction," said Michaela Tesařová, spokesperson for the property office, to ČTK. The Prague 3 district wanted the properties to use them for entrances and facilities for the neighboring Viktoria Žižkov stadium, which it owns.

"At first glance, I consider that price too high for us to match the offer, but we will assign an expert to evaluate it," Zábranský told ČTK. He added that the timing is also problematic, as an extraordinary meeting of the council would need to be convened to approve the purchase. "Besides the fact that councilors across the political spectrum probably have planned vacations, our council chamber is currently full of scaffolding because it is under reconstruction," said the councilman.

The auction, which had 11 bidders, began on Wednesday and was originally supposed to end today at noon, but due to a competition among several bidders, it was extended by about an hour. During that time, the offered price increased by 162 million crowns. There were 243 bids during the auction.

So far, the highest amount received from the sale of unnecessary state property was obtained by ÚZSVM from the sale of a complex on Prague's Republic Square, amounting to 790 million crowns. This March, the property office auctioned the house U Hybernů for 447 million crowns.

The building sold today was constructed in the mid-1970s and served as the seat of the Institute of Economic Information, then the Ministry of Informatics, and since 2007, it was home to ÚSTR, which began its extensive reconstruction. However, it never completed it, leaving the building in ruins. ÚSTR had to relocate and is now based in the Archa Palace on Na Poříčí Street. The failed reconstruction and the sealing of the property cost around 60 million crowns, with cases regarding suspicions of mismanagement in the past being investigated by the Ministry of Finance and the police. According to information from ÚZSVM, the building cannot be used; the outer walls are missing from the second floor, and the building has no windows or network connections.