The thermal baths in Chrastava are for sale again after four years

Chrastava - The thermal baths in Chrastava are once again for sale after four years. The five-hectare site near the highway belongs to Elektra Praha, which auctioned it off in 2016 for 30.4 million crowns. However, it has been closed for more than half a year. The property is now offered by Podještědská realitní společnost, but they did not specify a price. How much the owner would want for the site was not disclosed today by broker Tomáš Plechatý, even after an inquiry from ČTK.

The thermal baths near Chrastava were built by the company Dům pohody, which went bankrupt a few years ago, and 12 people, including several politicians from the ČSSD, are facing charges of subsidy fraud as a result. The construction of the site, costing around a hundred million crowns, was co-financed by the European Union; the next phase, costing 120 million, was not realized. The coronavirus pandemic has delayed the court proceedings. The April hearings were canceled, and they are expected to continue from May 15th.

The baths are located in Chrastava, about 11 kilometers from Liberec. The site includes a new building for the thermal baths with a relaxation center and the reconstructed Zámeček building with a restaurant and accommodation. Additional rooms are in the Beneš villa. The planned aquapark and sports hall remain in an unfinished state. There were also plans for a pond with a campsite, for which a zoning decision had been issued. The site has its own water sources and parking, and it is also connected to the municipal water supply, sewerage, and gas pipeline.

The mayor of Chrastava, Michael Canov (Starostové pro Liberecký kraj), was surprised by the sale of the site. "I didn't know about this; I would welcome it if someone bought it and started operating it again. The site has been closed for a long time, you can't eat there, the restaurant is not functioning, and the hotel served as accommodation for workers," the mayor told ČTK today.

The baths opened to the public on December 3, 2012, but the owner went into insolvency three years later, and the site went to auction. It was auctioned off only after the fourth attempt, with the price gradually decreasing from the originally requested 60 million to half. The current selling price of the baths is a question. Due to the pandemic, the market has been seeing an increase in restaurants, hotels, and recreational properties. Currently, around 80 hotels and guest houses are for sale in the Liberec region.