Penta wants to buy and demolish the train station hall at Prague's Florenc

Prague - The investment group Penta wants to buy and demolish the only seven-year-old bus terminal check-in hall at the Florenc bus station in Prague. This was reported today by the server E15.cz. It is part of Penta's project to build a shopping and office center near Masaryk Station with eight buildings for 6.5 billion crowns. The company ČSAD Praha holding, which owns the hall at Florenc, claims that Penta is not negotiating with them.

In the designs of the center presented by Penta in May, the current building of the hall at Florenc is already missing. Penta's spokesperson, Ivo Mravinac, confirmed to E15.cz that the group wants to build a new terminal for passengers a bit further away. The existing check-in hall, built for 70 million crowns, was opened only in 2009.

For the first phase of the construction of the center, Penta has already purchased land from the Czech Railways for 235 million crowns. Part of the area that the group wants to develop, however, belongs to ČSAD Praha holding. Penta stated that it is negotiating with the company, but the head of ČSAD Praha holding, Pavel Vráblík, denied it. Previously, according to him, ČSAD received an offer from Penta, but currently, the group is not in contact with ČSAD.

"I don't understand how someone can draw a project on someone else's land. No negotiations are taking place," Vráblík told the server. However, Penta co-owner Marek Dospiva had previously stated that if the land belonging to ČSAD could not be acquired by the group, there would be one less building, but the entire project would not be affected.

At the center near Masaryk Station, prepared according to the design of the now-deceased famous British architect Zaha Hadid, about 100,000 square meters of office space, shops, and other areas will be created. Penta announced in May that the first phase could begin construction within two years.