Prague's Prior store to be replaced by two apartment towers

Czech entrepreneur Tomáš Fetters is planning a major overhaul of the former Prior department store in Prague's Modřany district: in its place will rise a complex of two residential towers with more than two hundred apartments, along with shops and offices. Rents there will start at 15,000–20,000 crowns, and the developer promises to cut heating costs several times over thanks to modern technology.

The 44-year-old Fetters spent eight years working as a contractor on other developers' projects before realizing he was missing out on the real profit by staying just an executor. He then decided to go into development himself and set up a company bearing his own name, Fetters. His portfolio now includes a project in Braník, whose building permit took 13 years to come through but is now nearing completion, as well as three projects at once in Modřany.

One of them is the replacement of the dilapidated Prior department store, whose structure contains asbestos. The new complex is being built as a public-private partnership: the municipality will not need to put more than a billion crowns into demolition and new construction, yet it will keep ownership of the property and receive 10 million crowns a year, adjusted for inflation, while also gaining a landscaped area with parking and trees in place of a wasteland.

Besides rental units, the complex will include apartments for sale — from studios to four-room flats — and the ground floor will house a through-passage linking the square to a tram stop. Fetters plans to build at least 500 apartments in Prague over the next five years, financing the projects with a mix of bank loans and his own funds.

Besides development, the company earns actively from construction engineering and site management — about two-thirds of its revenue. For the second year running, turnover in this segment has topped 100 million crowns, with around 50 people on staff. Current projects include bids to manage construction of the new Smíchov airport terminal and the expansion of Prague Airport, technical supervision of the Invalidovna reconstruction, and participation in project management for the Vltava Philharmonic Hall.

Fetters also expanded his expertise by buying the construction engineering firm STIS (Stavebně inženýrská společnost) in 2023, a company that has specialized in technical supervision of construction sites for several decades. He valued the deal at a sum equivalent to four years of the company's profit — roughly a few million crowns. Despite its modest current turnover of 12 million crowns and a staff of just 3–4 people, STIS has more than 130 completed projects behind it, including the restoration of the Jesuit College in Kutná Hora and the Kinský Palace on Prague's Old Town Square.