Prague 9 refused the land and then bought it expensively
The project for the construction of a large complex with apartments for seniors or single mothers in Prague 9 in Prosek, about which the E15 daily begins in July, is beginning to embarrass them at the very beginning. The town hall “nines” came to part of the local land in a very special way.
In addition to Prague 9, the development role is played by the development holding Finep. The hussar’s piece succeeded in this, when in December 2011 he sold Prague 9’s share of land for 44 million crowns. At the same time, in just a few months, the developer bought these lands from restituents for 18.5 million crowns, the daily E15 found out from the contracts stored in the cadastre. It is interesting, however, that when Finep bought more than a two-hectare stake in the plots from restituents, Prague 9 was able to exercise its pre-emption right. But she didn’t do it.
“Our company cooperates with restituents on the basis of historical agreements on the protection of future purchase prices, in which a fixed purchase price is specified and at the same time an advance on the future purchase price is paid by us,” said Finepu spokeswoman Pavla Temrová.
The City Hall of Prague 9 also refers to contracts on contractual futures between restituents and Finep when it comes to why it did not get to the land for the first time. “The city district of Prague 9 was not a participant in the original contracts, and therefore could not solve what the participants agreed in them,” said Marek Schulz, a representative of the town hall.
But as co-owners, the capital city of Prague and the state had a pre-emptive right to the purchased plots. And in such a case, the pre-emption right takes precedence over the contract on the future contract, noted the lawyer Miroslav Hájek from the law firm Vilímková, Dudák & Partners.
Nevertheless, the town hall despised the right of first refusal at the time. “The city district of Prague 9 and the city district of Prague 8 have confirmed in writing that they do not agree with the use of the pre-emption right. In order not to have a pre-emptive right to use the above, “Iva Vojtková, a spokeswoman for the Prague City Hall, told the E15 daily.
City Hall bought the land at a cost of 25 million
Only a few months later, in December 2011, however, everything was completely different. At that time, Prague 9 bought the mentioned lands from Finep for 44 million crowns, ie by as much as 25.5 million more than the developer bought them from restituents. The contract for the town hall was concluded by the mayor Jan Jarolím (ODS). The representative of Prague 9 Schulz refers to an expert opinion, which set the price of the land at 55 million crowns.
“The sale price was the subject of a compromise agreement between our parties, as the seller, respects, among other things, the future project yield of land, sale of the majority ideal share in land and investments, especially project work that our party has already spent on land development,” says Finepu spokesman .
And why did Finep, who is at home in Prague 9 with numerous real estate projects, change his mind and sell the plots? Spokeswoman Temrová must do this because the development company did not find common ground with the town hall about the future use of the land. Between the spring rejection of the pre-emption right and the December deal with Finep, Prague 9 had another part of the land in question transferred to itself by the Office for Representation of the State in Property Matters. And she started preparing a social project there, following on from the Prosek Polyclinic.
“At first glance, it looks like a suspicious transaction, which we require for an investigation,” commented Stanislav Beránek, an analyst at the anti-corruption organization Transparency International.