Prague’s Kotva Department Store to be closed for one year as it undergoes reconstruction

Beginning in 2020, however, the now-landmark shopping center will be closed for an estimated one year as the location undergoes some extensive renovations, Kotva director Marek Vavřina confirmed yesterday.

Rather than close off sections of the shopping center for individual renovations, the decision was made to completely close down Kotva for one year while the entire building undergoes extensive reconstruction.

“[Kotva] will be closed during reconstruction,” Vavřina stated in a press release.

“Therefore, it will take less time than doing it gradually with limited traffic. It will mean less burden for the surroundings and it will also be cheaper.”

The cost of reconstruction on the Kotva shopping center is estimated to be in the range of billions of crowns, and PSN, the owner of the building, has received permission from the original architects to move forward with their plans.

PSN acquired Kotva in 2016 with plans to convert the communist-era relic, which has seen increased competition over the past decade with the opening of the Palladium shopping center across the street, into a prestigious shopping destination.

“To work on a new concept, we have cooperated with a foreign team of consultants who have experience in department stores like Selfridges in London or CUM and Cvetnoj in Moscow,” Vavřina states.

“We plan to place more than 800 brands in Kotva. We have already arranged about half of them.”