June 2020

Development Newsletter!!!

Important information for developers and investors

We would like to remind you that lucrative land in Ostrava is currently available to purchase. There are two plots for sale, and the City of Ostrava is still accepting offers to buy the land. The first plot – the Small Development Zone in Mošnov – covers 38.57 hectares and is located directly adjacent to the Mošnov Strategic Industrial Zone and Leoš Janáček International Airport. The second plot covers 635 m2 and is situated in Ostrava city centre, on the corner of Smetanovo náměstí and Vojanova St. This plot is zoned for mixed use.

The land at the Small Development Zone is owned by the City of Ostrava. It is an ideal location for commercial or office buildings, a technology park or similar developments that will generate jobs with high added value. It is also suitable for production facilities, logistics centres, or mixed-use structures.

The city centre site is zoned for residential developments and civic amenities. New buildings at the site should represent an appropriate addition to the current urban fabric in the vicinity, creating high-quality public space. The site is especially attractive because it is located within easy reach of key public transport routes and there is a wide range of cultural and community venues in the area – including the Antonín Dvořák Theatre, the Puppet Theatre, and the neighbouring Black Meadow (Černá Louka) exhibition complex.

The deadline for submitting offers is approaching: offers must be received by 31 July 2020. The calls for offers are displayed (for each site separately) on the website LAND.OSTRAVA.CZ:

 

A new opportunity – charging points for electric vehicles

Air quality is one of Ostrava’s key priorities, so the City is implementing a range of measures to achieve improvements in this area. In order to create a fully functioning infrastructure for electric vehicle charging, the City of Ostrava has prepared a project to install charging points at various locations within its boundaries. As part of Phase I of the project, the City has chosen 24 locations that may be of interest to potential investors.

A list of the land available for sale, terms and conditions for sale, plus other information is available at the website POZEMKY.OSTRAVA.CZ (in Czech only). Interested parties can submit their offers up to 12:00 on 21 August 2020.

 


Ostrava city centre will boast the Czech Republic’s tallest building

A unique plot of land in the heart of Ostrava next to 28. října St. – a plot known as the “Ostrava Teardrop” because of its shape – is being sold by the City to an Ostrava-based company which plans to build a commercial and office development incorporating a hotel and apartments. This vacant land, covering an area of almost 8 300 m2, is being purchased by RT Torax for 61.7 million CZK including VAT. The sale was approved by Ostrava’s City Assembly at its session on Wednesday 24 June.

Bids were submitted by two potential investors. RT Torax met all the stipulated conditions, and the company was also able to present an attractive – and somewhat unexpected – solution. The investor plans to build a commercial and office complex with two towers – a residential tower (48 floors) and an administrative tower (60 floors).

The residential tower will contain apartments. The lower floors of the administrative tower will contain offices, while the upper part will provide premises for a hotel with a restaurant at the top. The ground floor will offer retail space and a conference centre, and there will also be an underground parking garage for around 700 cars. The ground floor will function as a linking point between the Forum Nová Karolina shopping mall, a main transport artery (28. října Street), and a city centre boulevard (Jantarová Street).

 

Source

Visualisation: Chybik + Kristof Architects

 

Ostrava is supporting renovations of buildings and historic industrial structures

This year, the City of Ostrava is contributing 5 million CZK from its budget to support projects renovating buildings and industrial heritage sites in Ostrava. The funding is available for legally protected heritage sites and other buildings of major importance. This subsidy scheme forms part of the City’s long-term programme to help preserve and renovate cultural heritage sites and other key buildings.

The aim of the programme is to help the owners of legally protected buildings to cover the relatively high costs of maintenance, repairs and restoration.

The programme has now been adjusted to enable the City to take a more targeted approach to buildings and other structures that are currently in very poor technical condition. Owners can take advantage of these subsidies to fund reconstruction and renovation work, enabling them to maintain their buildings in excellent condition. The programme will also help to improve the quality of public spaces in Ostrava – not only in terms of architecture and urban planning, but also with regard to greenery (parks, gardens etc.) and improvements in the aesthetic quality of outdoor advertising.

Source (in Czech only)

  

New Park + Ride site in Ostrava

Ostrava will soon have a brand-new Park + Ride (P+R) site, located next to the Hlučínská Street tram terminus at Černý Potok in the city’s Přívoz district. Following trends in modern European cities, this new P+R site will help reduce the number of cars entering the city centre, which can only offer very limited space for parking. The P+R site will be completed within 22 weeks after the contractor takes over the construction site.

The new car park is one of several projects (currently at the preparatory stage) which will help solve Ostrava’s parking problems and motivate people to use more eco-friendly forms of transport – not only improved public transport services, but also cycling. The City is convinced that both forms of transport will represent ideal options for continuing the journey from the Černý Potok P+R site into the city centre – either using the frequent trams or taking advantage of Ostrava’s bikesharing scheme. Alongside the P+R site, the junction of Hlučínská St. and Slovenská St. will be reconstructed in order to give easier access for P+R users, and during this summer the Hlučínská Street tram terminus will also be completely reconstructed to provide a better passenger service.

Ostrava’s P+R car parks are located on the outskirts of the city, and are mainly targeted at people who commute into Ostrava from outlying areas. A P+R site must offer excellent public transport connections, enabling people to reach their final destination quickly, easily, and cheaply and then return to their vehicle in the same way.

Source (in Czech only)

 

The city has extended business rent payment deadlines

As part of the City’s efforts to help businesses in Ostrava overcome the negative impacts of the restrictions that were introduced in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, the rent payment deadlines for May and June 2020 have been extended by three months. The City Council had previously approved an extension to the deadlines for March and April rent payments.

In order to qualify for this extension, businesses must have been prevented from operating as a result of the Czech Government’s resolution issued on 14 March 2020, and they must not have included rent costs as an eligible cost in their application for financial support to compensate for the negative impacts of the government’s restrictive measures. The extension is applicable only to premises that are owned by the City of Ostrava.

Sources (in Czech only)

 

City approves further support to businesses

The City of Ostrava runs a “First Aid” subsidy programme for businesses that have been negatively impacted by the governmental restrictions introduced in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic. The programme has enabled businesses to apply for support up to 20 000 CZK and up to 100 000 CZK in separate calls for applications. On 24 June 2020, the City Assembly approved further support to businesses. The total sum allocated to this programme so far is 78 951 922 CZK, and the subsidies have been received by 2 557 businesses.

The City has also offered support to the non-profit sector. Between 5 May and 23 June, when this programme was terminated, the City supported 66 non-profit organizations, releasing funds totalling 1.32 million CZK.

Interested parties can submit applications for financial support via a new web app, which has been created jointly by IT experts from TietoEVRY and Ovanet. The app is a user-friendly form which makes it as easy as possible for businesses to complete and submit their applications. The web system has also helped City officials, ensuring that the administration and evaluation of the individual applications is as efficient as possible. The form incorporates several automatic processes which speed up the application process and help eliminate unnecessary errors.

Source (in Czech only)

 

Ostrava continues to support investments in rental apartments

One of the City’s key strategic goals is to expand the range of municipally owned apartments in Ostrava and to enhance the appearance and overall quality of municipal housing stock. In order to achieve this goal, the City is continuing to implement its own projects as well as supporting investments in housing stock owned by the individual municipal districts. People are expecting a higher quality of rental housing than in the past – especially the younger generation – and Ostrava is determined to ensure that available housing meets excellent standards, so that people are less tempted to relocate elsewhere.

The City maintains a special fund to support renovations and other improvements to rental housing stock owned by its municipal districts. This year, a total 50 million CZK has been allocated from the fund to projects of this type. The City has already paid out more than 47 million CZK to support six investment projects. Negotiations are currently underway on potential funding totalling 19.7 million CZK for projects at apartment blocks in Slezská Ostrava and Ostrava-Jih.

The City plans to continue supporting similar investment projects in future years. In May of this year, the City approved an application for a loan of 100 million CZK to support the modernization of housing stock in the municipal district Mariánské Hory a Hulváky.

Source (in Czech only)

 

Ostrava’s Technical University is developing parking solutions for the future

The VŠB-Technical University of Ostrava has joined forces with Ostrava-based engineering company KOMA-Industry on a joint project which will develop a new parking system for the 21st century. The fully automated parking system uses an autonomous transport robot to move vehicles to a designated location within a parking facility.

Professor Stanislav Mišák, the Director of the University’s ENET research centre, gave more details: “The University’s contribution to the project involves developing a new form of vehicle storage. Thanks to our solution, it is possible to move entire pallets which function independently of each other, meaning that we can exploit the available space to the maximum and fit in more cars than standard parking garages.”

A further advantage of the project is the facility to charge electric vehicles while they are parked. The parking garage itself is planned to be partially self-sufficient in energy.

The system has already been patented on the national level, and work is currently underway to construct the first garage based on this solution.

Source

 

Czech Convention Bureau is coordinating funding for congresses and conferences

Organizers of major national and international congresses and conferences can apply to the CzechTourism agency for funding. The agency’s call for funding applications will be opened on 1 July 2020. The funding is available for events lasting at least 3 consecutive days, which are held in the Czech Republic and which take place no more than 12 months after the submission of the application. There are two deadlines for submissions: 21 July 2020 and 30 September 2020.

Ostrava’s City Authority is the regional coordinator for convention-related events (congress and conference tourism). If you are interested in receiving the funding, you can contact our Convention Bureau and we will be glad to help you prepare your application. E-mail: , web: www.convention.ostrava.cz/en.

 

Czech Association of Business Service Leaders (ABSL) holds its first online conference

Each year, the annual ABSL conference features more than 600 participants from the Czech Republic and abroad. This year’s conference was originally to be held in Ostrava. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the organizers decided to cancel the seminars and panel discussions. These will be replaced by an online conference, which will be held from 10–12 November 2020.

This online event, entitled The Future NOW, will include seminars, workshops, online networking and virtual site tours at the Czech Republic’s largest business services centres. Participation in this year’s online conference is free of charge. The organizers will publish more information on the ABSL website.

We are confident that the situation will have returned to normal in 2021, and that we will be able to welcome participants to Ostrava for next year’s conference.

 

 Other news

  

New interactive map of strategic projects in Ostrava

The City of Ostrava’s Strategic Development Plan for 2017-2023 is implemented via specific strategic projects, each of which addresses one or more of the strategic goals set out in the plan. Often these projects impact on the entire area of the city or a large part of it.

To help people keep track of the Strategic Development Plan, a new interactive illustrative map has been launched showing the key projects from the plan, including basic information on each project. You can apply a filter to the projects and sort them according to categories (at the planning stage, at the implementation stage, and completed).

Are you interested in how Ostrava is developing? Do you have an idea for a project or changes that could be beneficial for the city? We’d love to hear from you – so why not get involved in some of our activities!

Source (in Czech only)

 

Reconstruction of the Poklad Cultural Centre continues

A major reconstruction project at the Poklad Cultural Centre in Ostrava-Poruba was launched last June. Currently, around 35 percent of the planned building work has already been completed, and the contractor is slightly ahead of schedule. As part of the project, both the interior and exterior of the building are being reconstructed and renovated.

An example of the improvements being made at this popular cultural centre is the installation of a fire protection system for the impressive (and legally protected) wooden ceiling in the main auditorium. Passers-by can also see work being done on the exterior of the building. The contractor has now begun installing sandstone cladding on the façade (as was required by heritage authorities), and work on the restoration of the historic sculptures outside the main entrance is already complete. The surroundings of the cultural centre will also be completely renovated – including access routes and paths – and new greenery will be planted.

The work should be completed by March 2021. In the next stage, the interior will be completely fitted out; a public tender will be announced to find a contractor for the interiors, which are not covered by the current part of the project.

Source (in Czech only)

 

Almost 100 million CZK will go towards modernization projects at sports facilities

This year, Ostrava is investing large sums in modernizing the city’s sports infrastructure. New sports halls are being built at Nová Bělá and Krásné Pole, part of the Ostrava Steels American football complex in Poruba is being reconstructed, and ten workout zones will be built.

So far this year, the City has released 15 million CZK for reconstruction projects at four sports facilities. The facilities are targeted mainly at children and young people, encouraging them to enjoy a healthy lifestyle. The sports centre in Polanka nad Odrou will be completely reconstructed, new facilities for players and spectators will be built at the TJ Hlubina sports centre in Moravská Ostrava, the existing facilities at the TJ Start sports centre in Poruba will be transformed to create modern tennis courts, and new grass will be laid at Stará Bělá.

The total volume of investment will reach almost 100 million CZK. Around 80 percent of this sum will be financed from other sources. The projects will be co-funded from the City budget, and in some cases also from the budgets of the individual municipal districts.

Source (in Czech only)

 

Events

30. 6. 2020: Business Evening (CZ)

The Business Evening is an ideal opportunity to meet new people from the business community and to strengthen your existing network of contacts. More information

30. 6. 2020: Have you suddenly experienced a big increase in orders, customers or work? (CZ)

On 30 June 2020 from 12:00 to 12:00 this webinar will show you how to cut administrative costs, reduce error rates, and get home from work earlier. More information

7. 7. 2020: Workshop: Insurance (CZ)

What to insure, and what to leave uninsured. What value your insurance policy should have… and how to think differently about insurance. More information

11. 7. 2020: Czechitas (CZ)

Introduction to programming 2: JavaScript. More information

13. 07. 2020 - 17. 07. 2020: Technology & Business Cooperation Days 2020 (CZ)

From 13–17 July 2020 you can take part in virtual bilateral business meetings with businesses from the EU. More information

18. 7. 2020: Czechitas (CZ)

Introduction to data analysis. More information

19. 7. – 24. 7. 2020: Czechitas (CZ)

IT summer school with Czechitas. More information

15. 8. 1010: Czechitas (CZ)

Wordpress 1. More information