Prague’s city councilor for property Jan Chabr says Prague is running out of time to find a new headquarters building before its lease for the Škoda palace on Jungmannova street runs out in 2028. “We have to decide soon how to proceed,” he told Hospodářské noviny. City officials claim they are paying too much in rent and the preference would be to build or acquire its own premises. “We’re including the costs connected with maintaining a building and the necessary investments that would have to be made if we went into an older building in our evaluation,” he said. Two potential sites, the army barracks in Prague 8 and the main headquarters of Česká pošta on Jindřišská street have already been considered and rejected as being too small, even though it’s still unclear how many city employees would have to be housed. GLL acquired the building for a client in 2017. The city has been advised by the Institute for Planning and Development that the construction of a new building for the city would take eight years to realize. Mayor Zdeněk Hřib has made it clear he would like to see an architectural competition held if the city were to opt to build its own headquarters.
