Velká Úpa to demolish original houses and build apartments, locals despair
Major changes are in store for the center of Velká Úpa in the Krkonoše mountains, but locals are not at all thrilled about them. Developers are buying up properties along the main road, planning to demolish them and build apartments. The investment fund Aequitas Capital Investment has already acquired the former Hotel Hela and the Úpa pub, and is negotiating for others.
The dilapidated Hotel Uran, bought by the town and slated for demolition, also came down. A transfer point for hut-keepers and a square are to be built there.
According to the land registry, the owner of Hotel Hela is now the investment fund Aequitas Capital Investment, founded by lawyer and insolvency administrator Jan Langmeier.
The hotel is planned to be demolished after the end of the winter season, to be replaced by a building with 21 apartments and a usable floor area of two thousand square meters. It should be finished in 2023.
A further 29 apartments are to be built on the site of the Úpa pub. Both buildings will have three floors and basement parking.
Services on the ground floor The developer's ambitions do not end there. It wants to acquire further properties along the road, a former bowling alley and a family house.
„The intention of the project is to build four accommodation buildings which, in addition to accommodation services, will offer services in their ground-floor sections facing the road. The properties are already owned by the Aequitas Capital Investment group; the remaining ones are the subject of transactions currently underway,“ states investor representative Jiří Lívanec in a letter addressed to the Pec pod Sněžkou regulatory commission, which reviewed the project.
The developer plans a restaurant, a café, wellness facilities, and doctors' offices. „We would like to complete the entire design and administrative preparation process by spring 2022,“ Lívanec says.
The construction complies with the zoning plan, and the investor insists that the building footprints correspond to the existing development. The town hall is at least demanding that non-residential space be set aside for services, which are desperately lacking in Velká Úpa. Apart from a basic grocery shop, there are none.
„The character of the area needs to change, there are worn-out buildings there that are falling apart. Velká Úpa has nothing open at all, it's dead, just a place people pass through. That's why we bought Hotel Uran, that's why we'll build a square, and we'll work with locals and investors so that something meaningful is created there,“ says Pec's mayor Alan Tomášek (independent).
According to him, the right balance needs to be found so that the new buildings benefit this part of town: „It's essential that buildings shaping public space also contain non-residential space. Otherwise Velká Úpa won't come to life.“
Locals don't want apartments For the residents of the houses along the main road, the apartment construction is a nightmare.
„We have small children and spend the summer with the family behind the house on the meadow, where they play. Once the apartments are built here, the sun won't reach it anymore. Just look at what Pec looks like, apartments everywhere. Nobody here wants this, locals are already fed up,“ says Jiří Hintner. He has lived in Velká Úpa for almost 20 years; his wife's family has owned a house on the slope since 1953.
They already went through this back in the 1990s during the construction of Hotel Hela. Now that hotel faces demolition, and construction of a three-story apartment residence will begin right under their windows. They will live in close proximity to the construction site for several months.
„The investor approached us saying they wanted above-standard neighborly relations and that we would be the first to be informed about the project. Nobody has been in touch since, but meanwhile they've sent materials to the town. That's how above-standard relations are built,“ Jiří Hintner comments ironically.
The Ševčík couple, who own the house right above them, are bothered that Velká Úpa will lose its current character due to the apartment construction. The valley has to this day been characterized by loosely scattered mountain cottages.
„Of course we're not happy about it, but what can we do. Velká Úpa has always kept the atmosphere of a village, but now the same thing that turned Pec into a town because of apartments is starting to happen here,“ they say.
Eva Beranová, who has lived in the house next to the dilapidated pub for 58 years, shares the same view: „We can't let this happen here. We let them ruin Pec, and now we're going to let them ruin Velká Úpa too? I think there are already enough apartments here.“
Investors have also shown interest in her property. „Above all, the apartments will be the end of all the guesthouses that exist in Velká Úpa. It feels like locals are slowly being squeezed out of here,“ Eva Beranová believes.
Neighbors and owners of surrounding properties will, like the town, be parties to the building permit proceedings. „I understand that some locals have a problem with this. But Velká Úpa has problems with derelict houses, a lack of services, and a lack of jobs. A way needs to be found that satisfies both the investor and the locals,“ believes mayor Alan Tomášek.
„They do whatever they want“ The new investor did not get off to the best start. On Thursday morning, workers carrying out geological probes damaged a gas pipeline. Firefighters had to close the only access road into Pec and evacuate part of Velká Úpa.
„As a volunteer firefighter, I ended up evacuating my own family. We spent three hours running around the hills. Developers here do whatever they want,“ Jiří Hintner describes with bitterness.
The Aequitas Capital Investment fund is already carrying out one major development project in the Krkonoše mountains. On the site of the Mlýn guesthouse in Herlíkovice near Vrchlabí, which was leveled by excavators in May, an apartment building with 29 units is being built. The guesthouse had been closed for four years. The developer bought the land with the building slated for demolition and with a valid zoning decision to build an apartment building. It should be finished by the end of next year.
The dilapidated Hotel Uran has already disappeared from the center of Velká Úpa. The town bought it from the owners earlier this year for 20 million crowns. It had the ruin demolished with the vision of creating a transfer point for hut-keepers and a multi-purpose building with an information center, public toilets, and service facilities on the vacated site.
Author: Tomáš Plecháč