Cresco Real Estate now holds 1,600 flats in its Prague pipeline and is already hunting for a fourth project. Aleš Svatoň, CEO of the Slovak developer’s Czech operations, says the speed of growth has surprised even them. The bigger shock? Prague’s newfound ability to coordinate.
Cresco’s Czech footprint started to emerge with the purchase of Metropolitan, an office building in Holešovice the company continues to operate. Its first residential project, SOHO Rezidence in Holešovice, runs to 550 flats across three phases. The first phase involved converting an old building’s structure into residential use and is now completely sold out. The second phase, 200 flats, is under construction. The third, another 200, is expected to break ground late this year or early next.
SOHO Holešovice
At the same time, Svatoň was always looking for projects on an even larger scale. While he was never likely to replicate Cresco’s vast Slnečnice scheme in Petržalka, Bratislava, 2026 began with a huge step forward. Because Cresco acquired the land and the related permits from FINEP which it is now developing as the Yards Žižkov. Part of the enormous transformation of the Žižkov cargo station in Prague 3, the project will eventually deliver 1,100 flats. Demolition work is already underway, with the first phase expected to deliver 560 units.
“Stefan [Beleš] is a real visionary and he’s definitely eager to grow on the Czech market,” Svatoň says of Cresco’s founder. “He’s also looking for new opportunities: Poland, Germany, Canada. He doesn’t stop.”
Plans for Yards Žižkov
Sales at Yards Žižkov have been strong. Cresco sold 30 percent of the first building before publicly announcing the project, at a price of more than CZK 170,000 per sqm. If that number sounds familiar these days, it’s because it reflects the current level of Pragu’s new -build market. Svatoň notes how quickly prices have risen, even since the developer’s previous project. The first phase of SOHO launched at around CZK 130,000 per sqm in 2022.
Air conditioning as the new baseline
When thinking about rising prices, though, you have to consider raised expectations about quality. Take the quiet shift to air conditioning, seen not so long ago as a luxury item. Svatoň now considers it a given and Cresco’s own trajectory mirrors this evolution.
In the first phase of SOHO, he says, only the top two floors had cooling. In SOHO 2, AC coverage expanded to 70 percent of the flats.
“I didn’t want people complaining to me how hot it is anymore,” Svatoň remembers deciding. “Let’s do it full package.”
Yards Žižkov
The cost difference between cooling 80 percent and 100 percent of a building is small enough that Svatoň considers it a non-decision. The question for the market is what these and other quality-of-life improvements mean for pricing. Cooling, better architects, smarter layouts, and smart-home technology all cost money. Buyers are getting more for their money than they were five years ago, but they are also paying more.
It’s not that land prices and standard inputs aren’t rising. “There’s a certain part of the growth that is just the pure rise of the price,” Svatoň acknowledges, “but clients are also getting better comfort.”
Cresco is following the trends by betting on slightly smaller, more efficient floor plans. Layouts are increasingly designed around furniture placement and the practical use of space rather than raw square meters.
Moving forward, Cresco is looking at a segment that few Prague developers talk about publicly: buying outdated 1990s office buildings. The idea is to operate them for a period, then convert them to residential. Svatoň says ESG-related financing pressure and generational ownership changes could push some of these assets onto the market at reasonable prices. The new Metropolitan plan, which is more flexible about land usage categories, should make conversions easier.
Five developers, no fights
The Žižkov project sits within the former Nákladové nádraží Žižkov cargo train station, a sprawling brownfield site that was blocked for development for over a decade. Five developers now share the area: Penta, Central Group, Cresco, Metrostav and Sekyra Group. The local municipality, Prague 3, coordinates between them.
It’s the kind of cooperation between the public and private sphere you never used to see in Prague. With its complex set of stakeholders, the old cargo station itself became a lightning rod for controversy. Over time, however, a vision emerged for the area to the point that the overall transformation became what Svatoň now calls “a master class of how it should happen.”
Each developer received defined responsibilities through a planning contract. One builds a school. Another builds a kindergarten. The City of Prague is building a new tram line that will be operational before Cresco finishes its first building. Coordination meetings take place two to three times a year. There are, Svatoň claims, no disputes, and no fights.
Metropolitan was Cresco’s first step in Prague
It’s a remarkable step forward for a market where developer-municipality relations were always bitterly adversarial. As it happens, Svatoň worked prevoiusly at Discovery Group a nearby site in the Nakladove nadrazi area. But that scheme had centered around a shopping center that needed metro access. When the metro didn’t materialize, the project was sold and sat dormant for a decade.
“Everyone has grown up,” Svatoň says. “The developers understood that instead of fighting each other, it’s better to cooperate. And if it’s well managed by Prague 3 and Prague City Hall, it can work pretty well.”
The dynamic echoes a broader shift in Prague’s approach to large brownfield development. The city and its districts are increasingly taking an active coordinating role rather than simply selling off land and hoping for the best.
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