Discount food chain Lidl is preparing a store in Prague’s Na Příkopě. The new Lidl premises will reside in the former historic building headquarters of the Czechoslovak Commercial Bank. Lidl expects to open a new store in the middle of the year.
Na Příkopě Street is around the 20th place in the ranking of the most expensive streets in the world by Cushman & Wakefield.
The grocery store will cover an area of 1,140 sqm.
“The establishment of the store in these unique premises will simplify life, especially for the residents of adjacent neighbourhoods, but also for employees and visitors to the capital who do not have access to grocery stores in their immediate area,” said Lidl spokesman Tomáš Myler.
The building on the corner of Na Příkopě and Panská streets was renovated about ten years ago by Immofinanz and Lordship. It offers commercial and office space as well as an underground car park. In the past, a house called U tří lip (At the Three Lime Trees) stood on this site, where the famous Czech fairy tale writer Božena Němcová died in 1862. In the 1930s, it was replaced with a new building, which became the centre of the Czech Bank.
In 2019, Na Příkopě ranked 18th among the 68 most expensive streets in the world. The highest annual rent per sqm was 72,190 crowns. In 2018, Na Příkopě Street ranked 19th, a year earlier 22nd.
“Food chains have been expanding very dynamically in recent years and it is understandable that with a higher density of their networks, they naturally consider specific locations, such as Na Příkopě,” Jan Janáček, head of the retail project team at CBRE. According to him, the operation of the discount chain in this lucrative place should definitely not devalue the level of this street in any way. “This is a commercial space, if the operator was able to accept the conditions of one of the two most expensive streets in the Czech Republic, it is a certain demand and potential that this place offers,” he added.
At the end of 2019, Lidl announced that due to the lack of land in the centres of large cities, they were focusing on the reconstruction of existing buildings, where new stores would be located. The company currently operates 289 stores in the Czech Republic.
