LaSalle Investment Management launched its 100Yards project on Na Přikopě in downtown Prague. When it completes in mid-2024, the mixed-used scheme will add 3,500 sqm of renovated office space along with 3,600 sqm of retail. But the significance of the project lies less in those numbers than in the fact that that it will create a single asset out of three buildings – specifically Na Přikopě 23, 25, 27. The project’s name reflects the total length of the retail frontage of the city’s most famous shopping street. As Jan Kotrbáček (Cushman & Wakefield) points out, that’s one fifth of the street’s total retail frontage that will fall under unified management. “They’ll control a fairly big area and its tenants mix, so they can make sure no one puts a bad store there that would badly affect the value.”
While Na Přikopě is Prague’s prime high street location, space is extremely limited, making it tough for brands to secure locations. Two years before opening, Kotrbáček can’t quote rental levels yet, but it’s clearly going to be expensive. “It’s going to provide a new, attractive offer to the street, along with a bit of competition. It’s increasing the number of opportunities for attractive brands.” Like Palladium at one end of the high street and Quadrio at the other, the project has the potential to act as a catalyst.
Cushman & Wakefield is the exclusive leasing agency for the project, while JLL is handling the office component. MD Andrew Peirson says the space will command prices that are higher than are currently being paid for prime, but which are standard in Warsaw and Budapest. “Rents at the Myslbek building were €19 fifteen years ago today it’s still €19. There hasn’t been this big shift in office rents that we’ve seen in other cities, so it’s overdue. Especially with a lack of supply coming into the market.”
Moreover, he expects leasing to go well, given the problems companies are having getting employees back in the office. “What we’re finding is that city center companies are doing better attracting their people back,” he says, citing the attractiveness of conveniently located amenities and transportation. “Companies are moving back into the center and centralizing their operations. Downtown is the place to be at the moment.”
LaSalle’s head of asset management Hagen Knaupp said the company had acquired the properties in 2016 and begun intensive preparations on it in 2018. He said handover of the building should take place in the summer of 2024 to allow shops to open before Christmas. Studio Acht’s Vaclav Hlaváček is chief architect for the project.
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