In Pilsen, they are demolishing the “glass hell”, the largest unauthorized building has haunted it for 25 years

Commercial presentation Update: 05/07/2024 11:31
Issued by: 05/07/2024, 11:31

Pilsen – In Pilsen, excavators and cranes started today to demolish the main seven-story building of the former Carimex car showroom on Rokycanská třída on the main road from Prague. It is the largest modern unapproved construction in the city, which burdened Pilsen for almost a quarter of a century, the locals nicknamed it “glass hell”. For years, the unfinished building was dilapidated and inhabited by homeless people and squatters. Adjacent buildings were razed to the ground in the past few days and the area around the building has been cleaned. Commercial, residential and office spaces will be created on the area after the auto show, Ivan Hlaváček, executive director of the Czech-Bavarian development group InterCora s.r.o. Plzeň, which will build commercial units there, told ČTK.

“By demolishing, we are fulfilling the request of the city, which we expect to sell us the land it owns in the locality. We want the area to come alive and become a cultivated and pleasant space corresponding to the 21st century,” he added. Due to this, the development companies InterCora and BC Real Plzeň will be able to combine private and municipal land, and will start the construction of the complex. Demolition will end by May 25.

According to Mayor Roman Zarzycký (ANO), the agreement with the investors the year before last ended protracted legal disputes. According to the contract, the developers were supposed to demolish the torso and clean the area by September 2024, after which the city will immediately sell them its land. “I thank the investor for keeping his word. Now it’s the city’s turn,” said the mayor. The sale of land will be approved by the council in June.

“The building is assembled from different types of materials. We have cleaned the building of polystyrene and all materials will be recycled – polystyrene, aerated concrete and concrete will be sorted separately. The demolition will be gradual in certain units, not in balls, as it is in the movies,” said the co-owner of the building company APB – PLZEŇ as Petr Březina. Construction debris will be up to 12,000 tons.

Investors want to build the Úslava Center on roughly three hectares by the river. “The housing investment will be bigger. BC Real is planning three apartment buildings by the river and at the peak a multi-functional building where there will be offices, shops and possibly apartments,” said the head of the project, Pavel Šindelář from InterCory. According to him, the construction of a shopping center worth hundreds of millions of crowns will begin this fall, which will be completed by the end of 2025. The multi-functional building will continue, and the apartments will come last, there should be about 250 of them.

“The earliest date for the completion of the entire location is 2031, but I think that BC Real will complete it earlier, even in view of market demand,” said Šindelář.

In June, InterCora and BC Real will have the neighboring car service and shop and two other buildings razed to the ground, the car wash will be dismantled and taken away. Only the gas station at the intersection with Těšínská street will remain.

“It was a symbol of a black building that entire generations of politicians in the district and in the city fought against. There were up to 90 homeless people and a hygienic risk due to landfills, rats and everything else. And it was a shame when arriving in the city from Prague,” said the deputy mayor of the district Pilsen 4 Zdeněk Mádr (ODS). According to Mayor Tomáš Soukup (ANO), police officers were on the scene every day and, due to frequent fires, also firefighters. People in the neighborhood did not feel safe.

A businessman from Pilsen started building the Carimex complex in 1997. He built the three highest floors without permission. The additional permit he applied for in 2007 was denied by the city. Almost 15 years of legal disputes over land ownership were ended only by the companies InterCora, RP Letná as and MS Letná as, which bought the area from the original owner in 2020.

CR construction law administration AUDIO Pilsen PHOTO