J&T will build a shopping center in Prague's Karlín for 2.5 billion

Prague - The company J&T Real Estate will build a commercial and office center in Karlín, Prague, for 2.5 billion crowns. The buildings will rise on the site of the dilapidated Praha engineering complex. The parcels measuring 42,000 square meters, opposite the Olympik hotel, were purchased this year by the J&T group from the owner of the engineering works, the Prague Public Transport Company. This is reported in Monday's issue of the weekly Euro.

The developer will start construction of the buildings, which will offer 60,000 square meters of floor space, in 2009. “We are already negotiating with potential tenants. There is interest in the location,” said project manager Martin Kodeš.
The plan is currently at the stage of urban planning study. The complex is to be two to three stories high with a maximum of two vertical landmarks, which will not exceed the height of the Olympik hotel. The investor anticipates developing an area measuring approximately 27,000 to 30,000 square meters. An access road to the swimming complex, which Prague considers for a possible Olympic Games, is to run across the parcels and is marked in the zoning plan. The New Švábky street will also pass through the sites. This is part of a new transport solution that will connect Karlín with Libeň and ease traffic on the overloaded Sokolovsk street.
The J&T group is not the first developer attracted to the flood-hit Prague district of Karlín. Huge projects are being realized there, and others are planned by companies such as Europolis, Immorent, or Real Estate Karlin Group. According to Euro, this company will begin collaborating with the Italian developer ICKM on the Libeň Docks project. After the transaction is completed, both companies will own half of the project.
The development of Karlín will also be supported by the Prague City Hall, which has consolidated 26 hectares of land from the Prague Public Transport Company and 15 hectares of parcels historically leased to Metrostav as support for the construction of the metro. Approximately 30 hectares will be sold by the Prague municipality to developers.
The investment group J&T started doing business in real estate in 1997 in Slovakia. In the last five years, it has invested around 154 million euros in real estate projects and states that it intends to invest an additional approximately 700 million euros in the coming years. In Prague 9, J&T is currently building the Prosek Point administrative center, which will consist of three buildings with piazzas and its own park, shops, and cafes. In the coming months, the group will present a multifunctional project in Prague's Holešovice.