Prague has established its own development company on the basis of a team that’s been working for a year now at the city’s Institute for Planning and Development (IPR). Prague Development Company (PDS) will be led by a veteran of the industry, Petr Urbánek, who’s been leading the team at IPR responsible for creating the company. “PDS will work on the preparation of city projects for residential and related services,” said Urbánek, whose team has been identifying plots of land that would be suitable for the construction of such projects. Prague’s mayor Zdeněk Hřib said that the construction of cooperative housing projects and the reconstruction of the city’s existing housing stock should be carried out while communicating with with the private sector. Deputy mayor Petr Hlaváček said the city’s development company had been set up to help prevent Prague from becoming a place where only the rich can afford to live. “There’s political agreement on the need for the renewal of city-led construction of city housing to help meet the demand for affordable housing,” he said. “We’ve been inspired by the activities of similarly functioning city companies in Munich and Hamburg.”
Photo: Lubomír Kotek
