The Ritz-Carlton luxury hotel, which is to be built in the heart of Prague after the renovation of eight historic buildings, and was delayed is now moving forward again. The long-planned construction of a five-star hotel was supposed to be completed last year, but the new completion date is now set for 2025 at the earliest. The reconstruction will also include 26 apartments for long-term rent, writes E15.cz.

Prague is the second most attractive market in CEE for hotel operators with a presence or interest in the region. Its popularity is backed up by H1 2023 being a period of healthy recovery for Prague hotels which achieved the second highest (after Budapest) RevPAR (revenue per available room) among the region’s capitals. In this year’s first six months, it reached €69, which is an increase of 57 percent versus H1 2022, and already a 5 percent increase versus the pre-Covid H1 2019. This was primarily driven by the strong ADR (average daily rate) growth, which surpassed 2019 levels by over 20 percent. Hotel operators are optimistic about the industry’s outlook and keen to expand across the CEE region. However, 28 percent of planned hotel projects in the region are facing delays or put on hold, mainly due to the increased development costs, reports Cushman & Wakefield in the Hotel Operator Beat survey.

Two large railway stations in Prague are about to be modernised. After Masarycka station, Czech national railway infrastructure manager (SŽ – Správa železnic) is now looking for a construction contractor for the Prague-Smíchov station as well. The result will be wholly modernised tracks and platforms, extended underpasses under the whole station, and a new footbridge leading over the station and allowing barrier-free access to individual platforms. The construction implementation will take place between 2024 and 2027, the total cost amounts to CZK 5.2 billion (€215 million), says SŽ in a press release.

The Prague office market proved its stability with a total modern office stock surpassing 3.85 million sqm by the end of Q2 2023. Despite no new office buildings being completed this quarter, ongoing construction projects are poised to add approximately 66,800 sqm of office space across seven projects by year-end. In tandem, the market is embracing the evolving demand for flexible workspace solutions, with four new flexible office centres inaugurated during this quarter, iO Partners reports.

Prague's Arkády Pankrác shopping centre is changing hands. The Czech real estate fund Trigea is buying it from the Israeli company G City for €265 million, according to information from Trinity Bank, newstream.cz reports.

As it was unofficially confirmed last month, Sekyra Group has agreed with Dostupné bydlení České spořitelny and the insurance company Kooperativa on the sale of the Opatov II residential project in Prague 11. This is one of the largest build-to-rent (BTR) transactions in the Czech Republic, Sekyra Group announced. The price of the transaction was not disclosed. 

One year after construction began, the rough construction of one of the future A1 office building in Prague's Rohan City project has been completed. Upon completion, the building will house the headquarters of Sekyra Group, the developer of the Rohan City project, among others. It is being built on a brownfield site on Rohanský island in Prague 8, which has been unused for many years.

YIT is the new owner of the Kuta Centrum office complex in Prague 4. In the future, the complex, renamed YIT Office Centrum, should be transformed into a residential complex, the CEO of YIT told online daily newstream.cz.

The latest plan by the Czech Ministry of Regional Development is to increase the parking capacity of new projects and tighten conditions for developers. It has presented its proposal to adjust the conditions for building parking in the Czech Republic, which experts say will increase housing prices, according to the online daily Seznamzprávy.cz.

Správa železnic (Railway Administration) has announced a tender for a contractor who will reconstruct Prague's oldest train station - Masarykovo nádraží - for CZK 3.2 billion (€134.6 million). The idea of the authority is that the contractor should be able to connect the historical spaces with contemporary architecture and at the same time that the comfort for passengers and trains should be significantly increased, according to the report by the Správa železnic.