REAL ESTATE NEWS

River Town

Prague is full of potential. Developers know this, but do they really know what is best for certain spaces?

Let us take for example Holesovicka Trznice, now called River Town in Holesovice, Prague 7; once a central slaughterhouse and cattle market for the royal city of Prague under Austro-Hungarian rule, now a misused marketplace featuring fake Louis Vuittons, cheap horrible clothing, an erotic shop, and BB guns. And if you are lucky, the vendors may or may not point them at you. Scary. The omnipresent ‘Golden Arches’ is there, along with a ‘quality’ Bankrot as well. To be fair, an open-air market that features fresh fruits and vegetables does exist, a good start for an area that has vast potential.

One could easily envision the grand marketplace that could exist; the complex is a huge outdoor space with stalls and kiosks and historic listed exhibition halls with ornate iron details and interesting structures. Delta Center, the firm that leases ‘River Town’ from the city of Prague has plans for this area. The plans include keeping the open-air market and they have added an Asian market, which is in the right step, oh, and high-end shopping. High-end shopping? Vinohradsky Pavilion is a perfect example of what not to do with a beautiful old exhibition hall; an old marketplace turned into a fancy shopping mall that actually sells, to be frank, tacky clothes and accessories. And the majority of the stores are closed because all the fancy things they are attempting to sell are unbelievably overpriced. The only saving grace this building offers is a functional Albert in the basement, a locksmith and a cozy wine and cheese shop.

River Town could have exhibition halls full of locally grown produce, an Asian market, a hall dedicated to Czech arts and crafts, a hall full of secondhand books, maybe an antique hall, a cheese, egg and meat hall, fresh baked goods, even a beer hall. Think of the field trips, day trips and the historical preservation of these listed buildings! And then the tourists would come.