Around 30 interested parties have been registered by the Prague Archbishopric, which has decided to sell the Jindřiška Tower, announced Jan Balík, the vicar general of the Prague Archdiocese. According to him, Prague has also submitted an offer for the purchase. The deadline for submitting bids ends on 8 January and Balík does not expect the number of bidders to increase significantly. He expects that the medieval tower in the centre of Prague could have a new owner within six months.
Late last year, the Prague Archbishopric decided to sell the tourist-attracting tower, which does not serve sacred purposes, as an unnecessary and economically disadvantageous asset. According to Balík, the number of offers has now increased the price to over CZK 100 million.
According to the vicar, not all of the 30 or so bidders have signed confidentiality agreements and will be excluded from the selection of buyers. Given the number of bidders, the sale process will probably be multi-round, he added. The current tenant of the tower, the Jindřišská věž company, which has a fixed-term contract until the end of 2044, is expected to participate in the shortlist.
According to Balík’s earlier statement, the tower requires an investment of about CZK 20 to 30 million for repairs. At this point, it would be a mistake for the church because even if it got a grant, it would have to put most of it from its own resources, he said. The long-term tenant, he said, has appreciated the building. According to the text of the advertisement, the tower was built out in 2001 with an interior space on which the various floors are perched.
With the new setup, the church is trying to prepare for a time when it will stop receiving money from the state for its operations starting in 2030. The Archdiocese of Prague has decided to invest in rental housing in Prague. It wants to invest almost three billion crowns in it by 2025 and plans to have 1,000 apartments. This will include the purchase of new properties, repairs of apartment buildings and its own development.
Another source of income for the archbishopric should be forestry, while it wants to get rid of property that is difficult to manage. In addition to the Jindřiška Tower in Prague, the archbishopric is also considering selling the Clara Futura Hotel in Dolní Břežany, which it renovated several years ago for a quarter of a billion. The hotel is operating at a loss.
Source: Prague Archdiocese and CTK
