Rozhovor Petra Urbánka, ředitele Pražské developerské společnosti, pro MF Dnes. Celý článek si přečtete níže.

The Investment Expert Committee of Pražská developerská společnost has started its operation

The Investment Expert Committee of Pražská developerská společnost started its operation on January 27, 2021. It is an advisory body of PDS which will be independently assessing projects under development, discussing potential risks and possibly recommending suitable solutions. The following renowned experts accepted membership in the Investment Expert Committee, which will meet at least twice a year, on the basis of nomination by doc. Ing. Arch. Petr Hlaváček, first deputy mayor, and agreed on the resolution of the Prague City Council no. 1549: Martin Bendík, Jaromír Hainc, Martin Hvězda, Lukáš Kohl and Miroslav Singer. The opening meeting in January was chaired by Petr Urbánek, managing director of PDS. The next workshop is pre-scheduled in June 2021.

“Highly skilled specialists from the field of economy (Miroslav Singer), real-estate law (Martin Bendík), urbanism (Jaromír Hainc), architecture, development and real estate analysis (Lukáš Khol) and construction costs and construction organization (Martin Hvězda) became members of the PDS committee. We appreciate their experience and an independent view of the projects under development mostly of municipal rental housing,” said Petr Urbánek, managing director of PDS.

“It is another important step in the whole functioning of this municipal organization. I believe that the appointed experts will bring a new perspective to the projects under development,” adds Petr Hlaváček, the first deputy mayor of the City of Prague.

Pražská developerská společnost (PDS) was established on June 1, 2020 as a municipality-funded organization of the City of Prague and it is based in Radniční domy in Prague 1. At the forefront is Petr Urbánek appointed on October 1, 2020. The aim of PDS is the appreciation of real-estate assets of the City of Prague and the preparation of projects of mostly municipal rental housing. By decision of the council, PDS received ca 400,000 sqm of land owned by the City of Prague for management and 6,000 – 8,000 flats are expected to be built there in a time horizon of up to 10 years.

Pražská developerská společnost established by the Prague City Council has launched preparation of the first projects on municipal land. The largest projects are in the location of Palmovka and Nové Dvory.

Currently the organization is finishing identification of suitable land and starting negotiation about the projects in cooperation with the Prague Institute of Planning and Development. “Our vision is that approximately 10,000 flats should be built in Prague per year, while municipal construction should include about 2,000 of them,” said Petr Hlaváček, deputy mayor (TOP 09). He also adds that the city council is finishing a methodology according to which the individual municipal districts should negotiate with developers about their contributions to public budgets. 

The deputy mayor mentions the largest identified land in the vicinity of Palmovka metro station, which is in the ownership of the Prague City Council, the Municipal District of Prague 8 and Dopravní podnik hlavního města Prahy. A smaller quarter with a park should be built there in the future. Other large plots are situated in the location where the new D metro line station of Nové Dvory is planned to be built. The deputy mayor says that a local centre with housing, shops and a house of culture should be constructed there. “These are two typical examples that have not yet been resolved for a long time,” says the deputy mayor.

He adds that in both cases changes in the urban development plan are being prepared and that specific investment projects including what will be built, for how much money and when it is going to be built on the land should be elaborated before the end of the parliamentary term in 2022. Besides, Pražská developerská společnost will deal with other municipal land, the list of which will be published by the city council soon, adds Hlaváček.

According to the deputy mayor during negotiations with developers, the city council started to use a newly elaborated methodology defining calculations of the contribution that companies should pay for the building of public infrastructure and facilities. The municipal districts often enter into agreements about similar contributions with companies, however, the methodology, which should be approved at the beginning of the new year, should provide a uniform framework. Nowadays, the agreements have no legal definition, but it should appear within a construction act under development in the form of a planning contract. The deputy mayor said that the solution of the city council complied with legislation.

The city has been coping with a housing crisis and rising housing prices. The role of Pražská developerská společnost should consist in the preparation of a concept of projects for socially useful purposes on municipal land and taking care of them throughout the approval process ending with the planning permit and a building permit. The implementation stage itself should be carried out in collaboration with the private sector, cooperatives or construction communities. The goal is to boost house building in the city and to accelerate the preparation of projects, which currently often takes more than ten years.

Pražská developerská společnost was established on June 1st and it is responsible for the preparation of municipal land for construction with a focus on housing, including coordination with private investors and municipal districts. Hlaváček said that the organization has eight employees and expects to have twenty of them during the following year.

At the end of this year´s May establishment of Pražská developerská společnost (PDS), a new state-funded organization of the City of Prague, was approved. The organization will be in charge of the preparation of municipal housing projects and development of land and locations that are primarily owned by the city. PDS has just started to work independently.

The goal of the future months is to prepare several specific housing projects for territorial proceedings in such a manner that they meet current requirements and specification of the city, that they are economically efficient in terms of construction costs and future long-term operation and that they have a high architectural quality.

PDS is based in the city centre in Radniční domy (Town Hall Houses) in the close vicinity of the New Town Hall. “We already have a basic team but further interested persons experienced in the field of real estate, development and construction are welcome,” says Tomáš Veselý, deputy director of the Prague City Council director who is temporarily in charge of management of PDS.

“The role of PDS will be mostly a land-developer preparing municipal land for construction in the public interest, primarily for rental housing projects. PDS will prepare a concept and perform an approval process up to a planning permit and a building permit. The implementation stage itself should be carried out in collaboration with the private sector, cooperatives or construction communities,” adds Petr Hlaváček, deputy mayor.

Prospects of construction in the Czech city will be one of the topics of an event held by Stavební fórum at the beginning of the autumn conference season. The following experts will be discussing about the near future of the sector of construction and development as well as the whole Czech economy, both in details and in a wider context: Eva Zamrazilová (the Czech Fiscal Council), Radim Passer (Passerinvest Group), Josef Kotrba (Deloitte), Jiří Nouza (SPS) and Petr Hlaváček (the City of Prague). Discussion breakfast called “Česko 2020: hledání cest z krize” (Bohemia 2020: finding a way out of the crisis) takes place on Thursday on August 27 in the gallery of the Café Louvre from 9:00 am to 10:30 am.

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A new municipal organization of Pražská developerská společnost will take care of city land, its development and construction of apartment buildings. The organization will be established on June 1 of this year and the Prague City Council will make a non-investment contribution of CZK 13 million. The councillors made this decision within their meeting, which ran long from Thursday of May 21 until the Friday morning hours. It will be headed by a managing director appointed by the city council and it will also include an expert committee consisting of three members, which will be an advisory committee of the managing director.

The organization will deal with land-development, which is preparation of municipal land and territory for the construction of apartment buildings up to the stage of zoning permit.  Simultaneously, the management of the City of Prague will decide whether the specific housing will be constructed by the city itself or in cooperation with a private investor. The tasks that a municipal developer will undertake will have to always be approved by the city management.

The Prague City Council has identified about 40 municipal lands for housing construction. They include Palmovka in Prague 8 or Nové Dvory in Prague 4.

Besides the Prague City Council and the city management PDS will have to collaborate with the individual municipal districts, Dopravní podnik hlavního města Prahy, the Technical Road Administration and other administrators of the city infrastructure.

The organization should employ 10 to 12 people by the end of 2020, 12-16 during next year and 20 to 25 employees by the end of 2022. It will be headed by a managing director and an investment expert committee, the members of which will be appointed for three years by the director on the basis of a proposal of the Councillor for territorial development and the urban development plan. Nomination of the committee members will be subject to approval by the city council. The city management will launch a recruitment procedure for the position of a managing director.

The intention was criticized by some opposition councillors. Ondřej Martan (ODS) said that the intention had not been supported by the municipal housing committee. According to Martan, the city management would authorise non-elected people to handle municipal land worth hundreds of millions of crowns. He thinks that the project is not well prepared and that it is vague. Martin Sedeke (ODS) and David Vodrážka, opposition councillors, said that similar experiments had happened in the past and they had failed. Patrik Nacher, chairman of the councillors, pointed out mistakes in materials and confusion. He also mentioned why the municipal organization of the Institute of Planning and Development was not in charge of such an activity.

Petr Hlaváček (TP 09), deputy mayor, who submitted the material to the councillors, did not agree with the reproaches. “These are standard procedures of Western European cities,” he said. Pavel Zelenka (Praha Sobě), coalition councillor, supported establishment of the organization.

The city has been facing a housing crisis and rising housing prices in recent years. The city management wants to cope with it by accelerated permission of construction and other measures involving ceasing the privatisation of municipal flats or support of cooperative construction.

Pražská developerská společnost has just started 

Establishment of Pražská developerská společnost (PDS), a new municipality-funded organization of the City of Prague, was approved at the end of May. It is starting its operation as of 1 June 2020. The organization will deal with the preparation of municipal housing projects and development of land and locations which are primarily owned by the city.

The intention initiated by Petr Hlaváček, deputy mayor and councillor for territorial development, was intensively negotiated from the middle of last year and from June this year, necessary organizational measures for PDS to start working autonomously have been taken.

The primary goal of the following months is to prepare several specific housing projects for zoning permit in such a manner that the municipal projects meet current requirements and specification of the city, that they are economically efficient in terms of construction costs and future long-term operation and that the individual buildings as well as the whole location have a high architectural quality.

“The role of PDS will be mostly a land-developer preparing municipal land for projects in the public interest, primarily for rental housing projects. The organization will prepare a concept and perform an approval process up to a planning permit and a building permit. The realisation itself should be carried out in collaboration with the private sector, cooperatives or building communities,” adds Petr Hlaváček, deputy mayor.

The result will be appreciation of municipal land and extension of municipal housing stock. The private sector, which will be offered to cooperate on the projects, where the main construction parameters have already been agreed on and where implementation should be carried out without major complications, will benefit from it too.

PDS is based in the city centre in Radniční domy (Town Hall Houses) in the close vicinity of the New Town Hall. “We already have a basic team but other interested persons experienced in the field of real estate, development and construction are welcome. You can expect intensive, varied and very interesting work. The team will be at the birth of something new, which is a strong advantage,” adds Tomáš Veselý, deputy director who is temporarily in charge of management of PDS.