The city of Opava will buy another part of the dilapidated Slezanka shopping centre for CZK 6 million. The councillors approved it on Monday. The iDNES news server reported about it today. The town hall wants to demolish the unsightly panel building in the future. The building will be replaced by apartment buildings and spaces for shops. The municipality bought part of the building years ago. The city administration is negotiating with the owners to buy the last part.
The city cannot demolish the building without resolving the property relations. Opava residents have been dealing with the fate of Slezanka for fifteen years, it has already cost the city coffers about CZK 300 million. Now the councillors have approved a contract between Tempo and the city of Opava to buy a share of the Slezanka building for CZK 5.85 million. According to iDNES, Opava will acquire Tempo’s share of the building above the Slezanka underpass, the part to the left of the underpass and the related land.
City officials plan to demolish the lower part of Slezanka. It was supposed to go down last year, but without resolving the ownership of the central part of the building, it cannot be done. It is to be replaced by apartment buildings, a multifunctional hall and an underground car park. What remains to be acquired is about a quarter share in the same buildings in the central part of the building with the underpass, which is held by the Prague company Avia Park V. The second, four-storey part of Slezanka towards Ostrožné Street remains in the hands of other owners and is not affected by the demolition, according to the server.
The Slezanka department store is a prefabricated building built on the site where ancient law-warrior houses stood in the 17th century. The block, which has a residential appearance, is connected to the historic buildings of the centre and is adjacent to a Gothic church. The building has long been a problem for the council. The previous city administration bought the building in the central Upper Square from a private owner in 2008. At that time, representatives of the municipality expressed their willingness to invest in repairing the building or demolishing it and building a new shopping centre. The city took out a CZK 270 million loan to pay the purchase price.
For a long time the shopping centre was almost empty and only in 2012 it was possible to find a buyer for its operation. However, it was not possible to lease the premises for a long time. The city finally agreed to sell it to a developer. A new shopping centre was to be built here. The contract for its construction was signed by the previous city administration with the developer in 2015.
However, preparations dragged on and in the end the opinion that the shopping centre should not be built prevailed. The change was also influenced by the construction of the nearby Breda & Weinstein shopping centre. It offers space for more than 100 shops, a multiplex cinema with six screens, restaurants and a café on an area of more than 25,000 square metres. After an agreement, the developer backed away from the plan. Since then, the town hall has been trying to decide what to do with Slezanka.
Source: CTK
Photo: jiripenas.cz
