Passerinvest Group’s Hila building topped out in May, measuring 55 meters and 15 storeys tall. It’s the first project in the Brumlovka district to combine offices, residential and retail under one roof. On a recent walk-through of the building, Passerinvest’s Eduard Forejt laid out for me what sets it apart.
A passage, not a shopping center
The building’s ground level is organized around a passage connecting two bus stations and the neighboring park. Some 2,300 sqm of retail lines the route, all targeted at tenants of Hila and rest of the Brumlovka neighborhood. A corner bistro is already pre-agreed and other shops are negotiating about the placement of their shops. Forejt is in no hurry to fill the rest, preferring to get the mix right the first time.
“All of the retail in Brumlovka is a service organization for the rest of the campus,” he says. “We collect rent at all the units, but we set reasonable rents for the space.” Unlike your standard shopping mall, Passerinvest charges a flat fee, with no turnover component. It’s a long-term logic focused on placemaking, instead of immediate income. “You don’t want to rebuild the tenant mix every two years. We try to find services which are not in the area, or which are under-delivering,” Forejt says.
In a nod to the importance of community-building, a restaurant at Brumlovka is to provide discounted meals for seniors and others after 3pm. It’s expected that other providers would join this non-waste strategy. In one section of the sloping property, seven-meter ceiling heights allow for a space-in-space layout, creating the option of connecting to the floor above via internal staircases.
Radiant ceilings and lower service-charges
The office component of the building offers a variety of floorplates, maxing out at 4,000 sqm, but they all revolve around a generous atrium. Some of the outdoor terraces exceed 1,100 sqm. Starting rent is €24.50 per sqm per month on the lowest floor, rising to €26.50 at the top. Tenants who take less than 1,000 sqm can expect to pay an extra euro per sqm.
For Forejt, the building’s coolest technical feature is its radiant ceiling system. Instead of blowing conditioned air, chilled or heated water circulates through panels embedded in the ceiling. This transfers energy directly to surfaces and bodies below, much like standing in sunlight.
“It’s not delivering the temperature from the ceiling to the air, but rather to the first thing it connects with: it could be your body, the flooring,” Forejt explains. “It’s a different concept. Try to think about the energy as light.”
Since it deploys a far greater volume of water in the building’s system than usual, the building will keep cooling (or heating) for nearly an hour after machinery shuts off. Forejt says the next step is to exploit this thermal inertia by timing energy generation to periods of lower electricity pricing.
As for the bottom-line numbers, the service charge comes in at roughly CZK 111 per sqm per month. Assuming typical electricity consumption, total occupancy costs should amount to around CZK 138 per sqm.
71 apartments, operated in-house
Above the offices sit 71 rental apartments, ranging from 34 sqm studios to 136 sqm four-bedroom units. They are part of Passerinvest’s new in-house brand Balance Home, which will eventually operate around 400 rental units across Brumlovka and its planned Arboretum at Nove Roztyly district development. Leasing will be managed internally.
“If a major office tenant comes to me to request a flat to rent, we have to be capable of deciding,” Forejt explains. “If you outsource that leasing to a partner, you lose that ability.”
One building per year
Looking ahead, Passerinvest’s development schedule has turned into a production line. Hila is due in 2027. Sequoia and Orion follow in Q2 2028 and early 2029. Omega, still awaiting its construction permit, is targeted for 2030. After that, the company plans a full reconstruction of its Alpha building.
In fact, a series of reconstructions are on the way for Passerinvest, whose earliest buildings came online more than 20 years ago. That’s right around the time HVAC systems, piping, lifts, and bathrooms begin requiring heavy investment. Forejt estimates the cost of a full building reconstruction roughly equals the original construction cost.
To avoid major cash flow interruptions, Passerinvest has developed techniques for retrofitting occupied buildings, floor by floor. Ideally, this involves relocating tenants into flexible space within the campus while work proceeds. In some buildings, lease structures include options that allow Passerinvest to move tenants for full-building renovations temporarily. “You can’t always wait until tenants are moving out to begin work,” Forejt says. “In some buildings, it would not be possible to reconstruct the whole thing at once.”
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