Panasonic starts production of air conditioners and heat pumps in Pilsen. The new hall was built by Panattoni

The hall in Panattoni Park Pilsen West II has welcomed a new tenant. It is Panasonic Heating & Ventilation Air-Conditioning Czech. The hall, with a total area of over 24,600 sqm, will be used for the production and storage of control panels for air conditioners and heat pumps manufactured in the Czech Republic.

Panasonic Heating & Ventilation Air-Conditioning has been dedicated exclusively to the manufacture of heat pumps since 2022. The new building with a total area of 24,662 sqm completes the development of the Nýřany brownfield site, where together with the building already completed this year, Panattoni Park Pilsen West II has over 60,000 sqm of lettable space. In line with Panasonic's values and vision, high demands were placed on the sustainability of the building during construction.

"Air-to-water heat pumps, as an environmentally friendly and economical heat source, are becoming increasingly popular in both new buildings and renovations of older buildings. Between 2019 and 2022, demand in the European market has doubled to 3 million units sold per year. During this period, Panasonic has grown 4 times in the heat pump segment. For this reason, we have decided to expand production capacity at the Pilsen factory. And that is why we also need new storage space, which we found in nearby Nýřany in cooperation with our partner Panattoni. I would like to thank Panattoni and its employees for the smooth cooperation and keeping the deadline for the completion of the new warehouse. Thanks to this, Panasonic will continue to expand in the production of heat pumps and become a leading manufacturer in Europe," said Hiroshi Komatsubara, Managing Director, Panasonic Heating & Ventilation Air-Conditioning Czech, s. r. o., CEO, HVAC Business Division Europe.

"Panasonic has been a major manufacturer and employer in the Pilsen region since 1996, when it opened its first production hall here. At that time it was the first Japanese investment in the Czech Republic. The original production was dedicated to TV sets, but today there are specialists in the complete production of air-water heat pumps. Due to the fact that we also work with these technologies within our halls to achieve energy cost reductions and minimise the CO2 footprint of buildings, it was fitting that we were the obvious choice for Panasonic," said Pavel Sovička, Panattoni's Managing Director for the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Solar panels are installed on the building and could potentially extend to the entire roof area. There is also an insect hotel and infrastructure for cycling, including cycle lanes and covered racks. This is also why the building aspires to one of the highest level of BREEAM New Construction sustainability certification, the Excellent.

The whole project has revitalized an originally dead brownfield with a strong industrial tradition. The Krimich I black coal mine was historically located near the site of interest. It was mined between 1867 and 1935, when mining was transferred to the newly opened Krimich II mine in Tlučná and the old mine was used only for pumping water and supplied water to the town of Nýřany and the settlement of Pankrác. The mine originally belonged to the miner JUDr. Pankrác, from whom it was taken over by Škoda Plzen. In the 1920s, the Plzeň Škoda factory built a thermal power plant here, which supplied the Plzeň Škoda factory, the town of Nýřany and the Ziegler Mine munitions factory. Since 1971, the buildings of the former shaft and power plant have been gradually rebuilt into the Likona Nýřany food processing plant.

Nýřany is located directly at exit 93 of the D5 motorway. It offers excellent connection to Germany and the Czech Republic via the D5 motorway and the German A6/A93/A9 motorway network to Nuremberg, Reich and Munich. The village is also connected to the railway network, and a bus stop is located directly at the site.