A new modern "city within a city" is going up on a total area of 250 hectares under the cooperation of the Prague 9 City District and development companies.
Nové Vysočany, a future local Prague city centre is arising in the area of the former industrial zone delimited by Kolbenova, Freyova, Poděbradská and Kbelská Streets. With its area of 250 hectares this part of the capital city is comparable with many current regional cities.
Around 40 thousand new inhabitants will be living and working here in the near future. Prague´s municipal plan is envisaging a combination of a wide spectrum of urban functions here: from residential through office and retail to leisure and recreational.
New modern construction
The transformation that the entire locality is going through is comparable, for example, with the changes that Anděl in Prague´s Smíchov district went through a few years ago; today it has been changed into a modern city centre with an entire infrastructure and civic amenities.
In the case of Nové Vysočany it is de facto the revitalisation of a large brownfield area, where it is desirable to make use of the historical imprint of its industrial past and the unique "genius loci" of the location and to integrate new modern construction in it.
The Nové Vysočany Association, founded by the companies CODECO, FINEP and IMOS development, arose in connection with the transformation of the area. The Association was then expanded to include another partner - CPI Group, which implemented the Galerie Fénix shopping mall and Clarion Congress Hotel in the locality.
The Association is closely cooperating with the Prague 9 City District during the transformation of the area into a modern neighbourhood.
The Mayor of the Prague 9 City District, Jan Jarolím, stated: "The gradual fulfilment of the Nové Vysočany vision is bringing new life to this former industrial area.
Thus we welcome the activities of the developers in the Nové Vysočany Association, since it is in our common interest for Vysočany to become an attractive urban district, which will be a pleasant place for living, working, entertainment and relaxation.
We particularly consider the building of the complete infrastructure and civic amenities including schools and healthcare facilities and the possibility of cultural use to be important.
Benefit for all Praguers
The revitalisation of Rokytka Park with many opportunities for sports and relaxation, which will be part of the future modern urban unit, will contribute to Vysočany´s attraction in the future. Nové Vysočany can thus not only become a benefit for the inhabitants of the Prague 9 city district, but for all Praguers."
Other development companies operating in this location also contribute to the development of the entire Vysočany region: BCD Group, AFI Europe Czech Republic and ABLON.
The heart of the future Nové Vysočany development area is Kolbenova City Development (KCD) with an area of 14 ha in the close vicinity of metro B´s Kolbenova station and next to Rokytka Park. The KCD area is the former industrial complex of ČKD Trakce manufacturing plants.
The renowned "Kolbenka," Emil Kolben´s factory, operated on this site in the past. Several of the original buildings functioned as storage, production and office spaces. Some buildings have already been or will be completely reconstructed, other buildings will be demolished, thus creating the space for modern offices, attractive blocks of flats, a hotel, shops, restaurants and cafes.
The planned development
The planned development of the KCD region will bring about 70,000 m2 of offices, 900 - 1000 flats for at least 2,000 new inhabitants and 12,000 m2 of shops to Nové Vysočany.
In 2012 the dominating feature of the entire Nové Vysočany area should become the 22 storey high office/retail building, KOLBEN TOWER, which also offers a restaurant with attractive views. Shops, restaurants and other services are envisaged for its substructure.
KCD´s developer is CODECO, whose Director Radek Zábrodský added: "The transformation of Vysočany´s large development area into the modern Nové Vysočany urban area with many thousands of inhabitants can take up to dozens of years.
Thus it is necessary to have a clear long-term vision for the development of the locality so that the conversion of the original industrial region to a future functioning city structure is successful.
Five years ago our company was the first of the developers on the territory of Nové Vysočany who started dealing with the entire 250 hectare region and, together with architects and city planners, uncovered its potential.
That is why we invited, and continue to invite, the cooperation of other developers who are developing land and complexes and also why we initiated the origin of the Nové Vysočany Association." Pavel Rejchrt from FINEP added: "We have already completed the first three stages of the Nová Harfa residential project, which is located on the South side of the Nové Vysočany development area.
It is one of the largest residential projects in the Czech Republic with its 2,000 flats. Now we are preparing further stages. Now the local inhabitants can already use a whole range of new shops and services that are located in the new shopping level along Poděbradská Street."
Vysočany´s large development area has a rich history behind it. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries it became one of the centres of industrial and technical development and the pride of Czech industry on the domestic and foreign markets; and that is how it remained until the end of the last century.
The most important Vysočany factories included the Českomoravská machinery factory, Kolbenova electrical factory and Breitfeld-Daněk plant, later joined in the world-renowned ČKD, and also Avia Aero, Praga and the Odkolek bakery.
Thanks to this the locality includes buildings and structures of architectural, technical and historical importance - for example the functionalist villa designed by architect F. A. Libra near the Kolbenova metro station or some of the industrial production plants in the Praga complex, which are proof of the refined industrial architecture at the start of the 20th century.
The future modern Nové Vysočany urban area offers:
- roughly 600,000 m2 of offices
- 50,000 m2 of shops
- 12,000 flats
- Rokytka Park (which includes a cycling path, track for inline skating, jogging path, tennis courts, pétanque field, etc.; the park is now undergoing a considerable transformation that is covered and financed by the city of Prague with the use of EU funds)
- complete civic amenities
