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August 29th, 2008
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February 20th, 2008 | Current Issue

King of the hill
MaMaison takes Golden City by storm

Generation Xteriors — and interiors
Ateliér Mozkyt, one of Prague's newest architecture firms, starts making a name for itself

Looking for cheaper housing options
Residents head outside the city's expensive center for a place to call home these days

Imperial work of art
Historic Old Town hotel restored to former glory

BRIEFS


SOLD More than 60 percent of the available units in Prague 3’s Central Park Praha development have been sold. The first round of residents will be able to move into their new homes in April, according to developers. “A very broad spectrum of people is showing an interest in living in Central Park Praha,” says Milan Ganik, managing director of CPP Development.

EXPANSION Quinlan Private Golub announced plans for further expansion in Poland in 2008. The plans include the opening of regional offices in Kraków and Gdańsk. With headquarters in Prague, Quinlan Private Golub currently operates in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria. Plans for 2008 also include expansion of the company’s operations to other countries in the region, including Lithuania, Croatia, Romania and Ukraine.
MARINA Structural construction work on the revitalization of the Holešovice Docklands has been completed, according to developers. The extensive project will include 350 luxury apartments. There is still more than six months worth of construction ahead. Work first started on the project in 2006. In addition to the residential units, the buildings going up in the first phase will include a restaurant, coffeehouse and other services.  
CENTER Construction of the Kolín shopping center officially kicked off last month with a foundation stone laying ceremony. The center will offer customers a supermarket, shopping gallery with about 50 stores, restaurants and cafés. Completion of the 450 million Kč ($25.7 million) project is set for this fall. The developer of the project is TK Development, the investor is GE Real Estate, the general contractor is GEMO Olomouc and the architects are the companies KRR and PIKAZ s.r.o.
HONOR Orco Property Group was recently awarded the Innovative Investor of the Year 2007 Award by the Warsaw Business Journal weekly magazine published in Poland. Orco was recognized for its “continued dedication to energy efficiency and sustainable solutions.” Examples cited by the magazine of Orco’s sustainable and energy-efficient residential developments include use of mechanical ventilation to achieve air-tightness, collection, filtration and recirculation of rainwater and exploitation of renewable sources of energy.
RECORD The development of industrial space has hit another record high, reports Cushman and Wakefield. In 2007, more than 800,000 square meters (8.6 million square feet) of modern industrial space for lease was completed. In 2006, less than 500,000 square meters was rented, and, in 2005, that number was about 310,000 square meters, developers say. Cushman & Wakefield notes that 2007 was a turnaround year. Development will continue at a slower pace in years to come, the company predicts.  
PLAZA The new Plzeň Plaza is now open for business. The 1.2 billion euro ($1.8 billion/30.6 billion Kč) project, which officially opened in December, offers customers shopping opportunities from food to fashion. It also has an entertainment center and movie theater. This is the second project of Plaza Centers in the Czech Republic.
VACANCIES The vacancy rate dropped to 5.25 percent in the third quarter of 2007, according to figures recently released by the Prague Research Forum. The lowest vacancy rates are in Prague 3 and Prague 4, where they reached 1.3 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively, by the end of the quarter. The highest vacancy levels are in Prague 7 at 13.1 percent, followed by Prague 6 at 12.6 percent.
 
FUND Discovery Group, together with several institutional investors, recently announced the launch of its first property development fund in Central and Eastern Europe — the Discovery Group Fund 3C. The fund’s initial target size will be 100 million euros, the company said. Furthermore, the fund is set to achieve its goals by focusing on development and investment in the Czech, Slovak, Romanian and Ukrainian real estate markets.
AWARD The Crowne Plaza Prague Hotel announced it has won the 2007 World Travel Award in the category “Czech Republic’s Leading Business Hotel.” Candidates for nomination are selected from the previous year’s voting. Established in 1993, it is the world’s most comprehensive travel awards ceremony, with trophies awarded in all areas of the industry. Voting is cast by travel agents in more than 190 countries around the world.
INVESTIMENT Plaza Centers N.V. announced it has made its first investment in Bulgaria through the acquisition of a retail development project in Shumen. The development budget for the new shopping and entertainment center is estimated at 38 million euros. The development will comprise 18,000 square meters of leasable retail space and 20,000 square meters of parking. Plaza Centers anticipates that the project will be completed by late 2009.
EXHIBITION The exhibition “The Future and the Present of Prague 1,” which ran for seven days last fall, attracted more than 5,000 visitors. Staged by the Municipality of Prague 1, the event highlighted completed city projects as well as projects under development and preparation. The exhibition included a children’s drawing competition. The winner was Veronica Hohnová, 10, with her picture, “A View Out of My Window.”
OUTLET The Fashion Arena Outlet Center in Štěrboholy is now open. The recent opening ceremony was attended by the managing director of TK Development, Thomas H. Villadsen, the managing director of LMS Outlets, Graham Coxhead, the mayor of Štěrboholy, František Ševít, the mayor of Prague 15, Jiří Petříš, and the center’s retail operations director, Richard Vlček.
SHOPPING Prague’s Na Příkopě is the most expensive street in the Czech Republic and ranks 20th in the world, according to Main Streets Across the World, an annual publication put out by Cushman & Wakefield. Rent for retail units in Na Příkopě in Prague amounts up to 2,040 euros per square meter per year, the data show. The report tracks retail rents across 44 countries. The data for the current ranking were collected in June 2007.  
 
RANKING Cushman & Wakefield has been voted the best real estate agency in the Czech Republic by readers of the Construction & Investment Journal. This is the third time in a row Cushman & Wakefield has won the award. The award was accepted by Jonathan Hallett, Cushman & Wakefield’s managing partner for the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

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