The city administration will buy the Czech Post (ČP) building on Na Strži Street in Prague 4, according to a document approved by city councillors at an extraordinary meeting today. The material should be dealt with today by Prague councillors, who must confirm the possible purchase. The specific price for which the city wants to buy the building is not clear from the document. It contains an estimate by a forensic expert who valued the property at CZK 417 million. It is a seven-storey building from 1984 with adjacent land. ČP announced an auction for the sale of the building, which was subsequently cancelled.
Due to its poor economic results, the Post Office has closed three hundred branches in the Czech Republic since July this year and announced that it will dispose of the property. In the capital, 35 out of 106 post offices were affected by the closures.
Prague owns a number of plots of land around the post office building. According to the material, the purchase of the property will increase the value of the land belonging to the city. The purchase will also allow the city to maximise the potential benefits of urban planning and strategic development from a social, economic and environmental perspective.
The building is in poor condition. Asbestos has been found, the building has a non-functioning central air conditioning system, leaks through the terrace to the first floor and heat is escaping from the building. The substation, owned by PREdistribution, also needs to be repaired. The energy performance of the building is at level E, the second worst on a six-point scale. It includes an underground garage with 39 spaces and a driveway.
ČP announced an auction this September to sell the building. The winner offered a price of just under 400 million. The Post Office subsequently cancelled the auction without giving any reason. The Prague City Council expressed interest in the property before the auction was announced. Even before its cancellation, city representatives said they would continue to negotiate with the post office.
Czech Post reported a loss of CZK 1.73 billion last year, and its director in charge Miroslav Štěpán said in August that he expected a billion CZK loss this year. It had to resort to austerity measures, including closing 300 of its 3,200 branches in the middle of the year. The post office employs nearly 22,000 people and by the end of May had cut 924 jobs in connection with the branch closures, of which about 600 employees had been given notice.
The post office also said this week that it has announced a tender for the sale of the main post office building at the corner of Politických vězňů and Jindřišská streets in Prague. The tender was preceded by an offer of the building to state institutions, which was not taken up. The building, which currently houses, among other things, the company’s management, is being sold by Česká pošta together with a house in Moravská Street, where the price is CZK 62.39 million.
Source: CTK
