Czech town tries to prevent giant residential hotel from developing

News server iDNES.cz reports that councilors in the Czech town of Přerov have said they would prefer to pay CZK 40 million for a building they don’t need than see it turn into a giant residential hotel housing hundreds of socially vulnerable people. Local officials have approved a plan to purchase the local Hotel Strojař from the Czech Defense Ministry.

The municipality does not yet know where it will get the money for the purchase. The nine-story building in the town center is permitted for use as an apartment hotel.

"If someone buys it and decides to turn it into a residential hotel for the socially vulnerable, of which we already have as many as 20 in town, then because of bad legislation the town would have no way to prevent something on the order of several hundred people moving into it," said Deputy Mayor Michal Zácha, who proposed buying the building. "The ministry was preparing the fourth round of a tender in which the price was around that much, and right now there is a risk that a real estate speculator might buy it. Something on the order of several hundred people already live in social residential hotels in Přerov. Fortunately, after meeting with us, the ministry postponed its auction in order to wait for the town council’s decision on whether to bid for the property," Zácha said.

His proposal passed by one vote. The town now wants to negotiate with the ministry so that it will not auction off the residential hotel, built in the 1970s for employees of the local engineering works and featuring with almost 370 units, but will sell it directly to the municipality so it will not be outbid.  

Zácha said he did not know whether CZK 40 million would be enough to buy the building. However, the ministry usually lowers its sale price by 10 – 15 % for each successive round of bidding, so it should be asking between CZK 41.9 and 39.5 million.