Prague to get an expansive new neighborhood with planned Avia City in Letňany

Prague’s Letňany district will get a new neighborhood on the site of the former Avia plane part factory.

The Odien investment group wants to build a new city district with houses, apartments, a sports complex, green spaces, and school and kindergartens.

The project counts on a total of eight hectares of greenery, equal to the size of Prague 2’s Riegrovy sady. Mature trees are already in the area. There will be ponds, bike paths, sidewalks and exercise areas.

The public space will be equipped with practical smart gadgets that will make life easier for everyone.

“We have been working on the project to change this area since 2007, and I believe we are nearing the conclusion that we will achieve a change in the zoning plan by the end of this year and be able to start,” Odien investment group founder Michael Saran told news server Seznamzpravy.cz, adding that construction should begin within three years.

Odien has been in Letňany since 2004 and wants to continue there. “It’s not like we built houses and left,” Saran said, adding that Odien already supplies heat to the inhabitants of almost half of Letňany.

“It’s not just about quality housing. There will jobs, services, schools and kindergartens, sports facilities and an amount of green area equalling Prague’s biggest parks, which I think need the residents of Prague 9 certainly more than industrial buildings,” Saran said in a press release.

Jiří Drozd, Odien Group’s director of development, said one of the main priorities for transport is the revitalization of the Čakovice railway station into a major transfer point in the future. The company is also considering a tram line and has commissioned a transport study of what it would look like if a tram from Ďáblice stretched to there. They also hope to revitalize the adjacent roads and intersections. New bike paths will connect also Letňany to Čakovice.

The construction will be divided into four stages. The first stage, which includes 1,400 flats, a school and shops, is to be completed by 2030 at the latest. It will cost 4.5 billion CZK. And the whole project is to be completed in 15 to 25 years.

A steering committee for the planned construction has been set up. It includes former ČNB governor Zdeněk Tůma, and former Čedok CEO Miroslav Res, in additionto Saran.

“AVIA City has great potential to participate in the future in the socio-economic development of Letňany, Čakovice and Prague on a larger scale,” Tůma said. “As a resident of Prague, I personally care about its success.”

The site was used by the industrial firm Avia, which began as an airplane maker in 1919, known for biplanes. It diversified into trucks in 1945 and ceased plane production in 1963, though it continued to make parts. The company split into two separate units in 1992, one for trucks and one for aviation parts. The facility in Letňany ceased operation in 1993 when plane part production was moved to Stará Boleslav.