The council of the Liberec Region will discuss the purchase of the Ještěd transmitter on February 24

Liberec - The contract for the purchase of the mountain hotel and transmitter Ještěd in Liberec is to be discussed by the council of the Liberec Region on February 24. The region has been negotiating with Czech Radiocommunications (ČRa) for almost two years, currently waiting for the cadastral office to register all encumbrances. The main goal is to prepare for the reconstruction of the building, said the governor Martin Půta (Mayors for the Liberec Region) to reporters today. The region will pay 181 million crowns for the building and wants to announce a public competition for project preparation as early as March.

If the council approves the purchase agreement, Půta expects to sign it with ČRa by the end of March. According to him, the region has so far prepared 15 million crowns for the project preparation of the reconstruction. "We expect that it could be finished by the end of next year; it is not a simple construction, but it is not the construction of Temelín either," added Půta. The costs for the reconstruction of the building are preliminarily estimated at 400 million crowns; the governor wants to discuss financing options with the new government, believing that the government will support the restoration of Ještěd similarly to the restoration of the fortress towns of Josefov or Terezín.

According to the governor, the purchase of the property by the region will not change anything for the visitors of the hotel and transmitter. "Visible steps will begin to take place only when we have the reconstruction project designed and start planning a schedule for how the property will be repaired. Otherwise, it will continue to operate in the manner that its visitors and admirers are used to," he said. The regional leadership would like to start the actual reconstruction before the end of the electoral term, meaning by the autumn of 2028.

The mountain hotel and transmitter Ještěd have been serving since 1973 and are among the most original architectural works in the Czech Republic. Architect Karel Hubáček received the prestigious international Perret Prize for the project in 1969. The public voted the building as the Czech construction of the 20th century. ČRa has owned the hotel and transmitter since 2000, obtaining it for 85 million crowns and investing additional tens of millions into repairs. They offered Ještěd to the Ministry of Culture, but it has no interest in the valuable building listed in the indicative UNESCO heritage list.

Ještěd has been a national cultural monument since 2006, and auditors from Deloitte Advisory valued it for negotiation purposes at 181 million crowns using the income method; the region has about four million crowns prepared for the purchase of equipment, and there is also money allocated in the budget for the maintenance of the building. According to the proposal, ČRa will pay approximately 3.5 million crowns annually, including VAT, for the use of the broadcasting hall, offices, and technology placement space.