Prague is finalizing contracts with developers regarding the Žižkov Freight Station
For example, Central Group, Penta Real Estate, Sekyra Group or Finep plan to build on NNŽ.
According to Hlaváček, contracts with investors are now being finalized and should be approved at the beginning of next year. Subsequently, the city council will approve the change of the zoning plan, which has been prepared with breaks since 2009 and which is necessary for most of the construction. According to urban studies, up to 11,000 new flats for 23,000 inhabitants should be built in the new district within 20 years.
According to Hlaváček, the contracts with developers will include direct financial contributions of approximately 852.3 million crowns. Of this, 150 million will go to Prague 3 for the reconstruction of the now empty primary school on Havlíčkův náměstí and 702.3 million will go to the municipality for the development of affordable housing and the construction of a new primary school. According to the deputy, the other roughly 702.8 million are invested by the developers themselves, in the form of leaving the land for the primary school, building squares and parks and building kindergartens for 650 pupils.
The first few house blocks of the Central Group company near Basel Square have already started to be built, for the rest of the construction it is necessary to approve the change of the zoning plan. Only then, according to Hlaváček, can investors apply for zoning decisions and building permits for individual projects. “It will take five to six years from the change of the zoning plan,” he said. If all goes well, he said, the new neighborhood could stand in 15 to 20 years.
At the same time, the city requires its own investments in the area, the most important being the construction of a new two-lane link connecting the new district to the future city ring road in Jarov and a parallel tram line. At the same time, the city is negotiating the use of the functionalist buildings of the railway station, where a cultural center and the seat of the National Film Archive should be established. The building of the Czech Railways itself was originally supposed to give way to construction, after the pressure of activists, it was demolished and since 2013 it has been a cultural monument.
Until 19 December, people can visit the exhibition on the future of NNŽ at the Center for Architecture and Urban Planning (CAMP) at the headquarters of the Institute of Planning and Development next to the Emmaus Monastery in Prague 2.