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The many faces of Hochtief

German-based developer strengthens its ties in the Czech Republic

By Kathleen Kralowec
For The Prague Post
March 21st, 2007 issue

Jan Přerovský/THE PRAGUE POST
Hochtief Development's Peter Noack and Petr Beneš are juggling numerous projects.
While international construction giant Hochtief AG has been a fixture in the Czech Republic for a decade now, it was only recently that the country finally got a little name recognition.
Hochtief CZ, a.s. appeared on the scene late last year as essentially just a new name for an existing company division. However, its significance runs much deeper.
“It better expresses the national field of the activity of the company and the fact that we belong to the Hochtief group,” explains Alena Čechová, a division spokeswoman.
Hochtief CZ’s construction services are focused on residential, commercial, industrial, institutional, environmental and traffic infrastructure, as well as water management. The division, which used to be called Hochtief VSB, is also responsible for building nuclear power plants.
“In the past, we were the contractor of the nuclear power plant Temelín and we executed a lot of activities on the nuclear power plant Dukovany,” Čechová says.
Its name may be new, but the Hochtief CZ division, in fact, has roots here. Its history begins with the creation of a small Czech construction company named Vodní Stavby. In 1994, the firm changed its name to Vodní Stavby Bohemia a.s., which was shortened to simply VSB in 1998. The following year, Hochtief AG became a major shareholder in the VSB company, which eventually morphed into one of the German-based construction firm’s Czech divisions.
With this finalization of a long-term process of integration, and with other projects blooming throughout the country, industry insiders agree that the multifaceted Hochtief AG construction services company is finally developing a comprehensive identity in the Czech Republic.
Hochtief

Karla Engliše 6
Prague 5
Tel.: 233 081 952
Web: www.hochtief.cz

Hochtief AG’s other division in the country, Hochtief Development, which was profiled in The Prague Post last year, focuses mainly on large-scale residential, commercial and logistics constructions and currently has many projects blossoming around the country.
Petr Beneš, Hochtief Development’s newly promoted chief clerk, explains that his division invests in high-impact, high-visibility structures.
“We choose projects which allow us to use the power we have to participate in the development of a city,” he says.
While both key Czech divisions — Hochtief CZ and Hochtief Development — have their own list of projects, the two divisions do collaborate on some projects.
For example, the two are collaborating on an 11-story office park in Prague 4, called Kavčí Hory, which is expected to be completed in 2008.
Hochtief Development Managing Director Peter Noack says Kavčí Hory represents what he hopes will be a typical “Hochtief Class A” building in the future.
“We aim for our Class-A buildings to be architecturally very interesting, built to the highest modern standards, but also we always emphasize efficiency, never adding unnecessary functions to the design,” Noack says.
And Beneš points out that Kavčí Hory will be Prague’s first office building to offer almost 6,500 square meters (70,000 square feet) of space per floor, plus between 500 and 600 square meters in the adjacent tower, ideal for management offices.
“This is something no other building in Prague can offer,” he says.
Hochtief CZ is the project’s general contractor.
Well known for its numerous Prague 4 projects, Beneš stresses that Hochtief Development’s activities are not confined to this district.
“We will not stay in Prague 4. We did in the past,” Beneš says. “We will continue in both Prague 4 and in other districts.”
Given this, it’s probably not a far stretch to assume both of Hochtief’s Czech divisions will be partnering up a lot more in the future.
Hochtief AG’s International Development Division currently has divisions in the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary and Poland. The company says it plans to expand to Romania by the end of the year and has long-term hopes of starting projects in Bulgaria. Within the Czech Republic, there are plans to expand to Plzeň, Ostrava and Brno.

Kathleen Kralowec can be reached at specialsection@praguepost.com


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