The Prague City Council has begun negotiations for the purchase of the Žižkov cargo railway station building in Prague 3 from Czech Railways compay (ČD). The city plans to transform the functionalist building as an educational and cultural center. Discussions are expected take until spring to complete. “ČD has entered negotiations with the City of Prague and all interested parties on the specification of the land and buildings that the capital is interested in,” said Petr Šťáhlavský, a spokesman for ČD. Prague plans to purchase the building from a reserve fund used specifically for real estate transactions.
Žižkov Station Development is the joint venture company between the City of Prague and the developer Sekyra Group set up to redevelop the entire cargo station complex. Originally, the station building was to be torn down, but it was added to the list of cultural monuments in 2013 and is therefor protected. Its reconstruction and redevelopment is expected to cost up to CZK 1.7bn.
