Panattoni starts construction of modern industrial complex on Poldi Kladno brownfield
The new Panattoni Business Park Kladno will consist of two modern halls with a total size of 88,500 sqm. Following the completion of the challenging redevelopment, Panattoni will construct two buildings here, which are targeting an Excellent rating according to BREEAM New Construction certification. The investment will bring up to 2,000 new jobs and help with the economic transformation of Kladno. The modern, custom-built industrial space will be available to future tenants as early as 2025.
Panattoni plans to build a modern industrial complex with high added value potential on part of the former Poldi Kladno steelworks site. The area where Panattoni Business Park Kladno will be built has been used for industrial production since 1889.
"At Panattoni, we like to build on brownfield sites because this is how we bring life back to traditional industrial locations. We have a lot of experience with brownfields, so it is fitting that we have the opportunity to participate in the restoration of this historically important industrial site. Back in the early 1990s, over 6,000 employees worked in this now 'dead' site in very difficult working conditions. We will replace these heavy operations with a modern complex with a great working environment. I firmly believe that this will enable the Kladno site to build on the successes that Poldovka had in its heyday," says Pavel Sovička, Panattoni's General Manager for the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
In the past, the site housed facilities used for production, such as rolling mills, continuous steel casting facilities, laboratories and stainless steel production. Of course, there were also storage facilities. A railway siding ran on part of the site. The removal of technology and the demolition of the metal parts of the halls took place at the beginning of the millennium. As part of the revitalisation of the area, some buildings were demolished in 2016-2017 and the above-ground and, if necessary, underground parts were removed. The area was subsequently levelled with recycled building material from the demolition.
"The City of Kladno has long been striving to bring the brownfield of the former steelworks back to life. We are extremely pleased that the efforts made, for example, in the form of ecological surveys and careful spatial planning, are bearing fruit. We consider good cooperation between the city and the developers to be a prerequisite for a functioning city. The cooperation of the state should also be a matter of course for such an important brownfield, especially for cleaning up old environmental burdens and building road and rail connections. We hope that the state will realise the potential that lies in the long-neglected Poldovka in Kladno and will join the cooperation," said Ondřej Rys, Kladno City Councillor for Development.
The new Panattoni Business Park Kladno will consist of two halls with total dimensions of 55,500 and 33,000 m². Both halls will target an Excellent rating under the BREEAM New Construction environmental certification. A waste management plan will be followed during construction to minimise site waste to landfill. The plan is to use and recycle local material as much as possible to minimise the number of lorries carrying construction debris off site via the city roads, whilst reducing the carbon footprint of the project. The high energy efficiency of the project will be achieved through the use of central heat supply (CHP) or heat pumps. The project will aim for the complete elimination of fossil fuels. The roof structures of both halls will be prepared for the installation of photovoltaic panels.
The site also plays an important role in terms of transport infrastructure, with important motorways D7, D6 and D5 located nearby. The Kladno-Švermov railway station, which is a few minutes' walk from the future site, and the Václav Havel Airport in Prague should not be overlooked. A great promise for the future is the possible connection of Prague, the airport and Kladno by the planned high-speed railway.
From a geological point of view, the area where Panattoni Business Park Kladno is being built is made up of anthropogenic deposits up to about seven metres below the terrain. A risk analysis was prepared in 2013, which also identified pollution hotspots on the site. In 2018, a follow-up more detailed survey was carried out, which was carried out in several stages until 2020. The contaminated spoil consists of soils with an admixture of production waste, which were used for landscaping during the expansion of production on the former Poldi Kladno site after 1940. The decontamination of the area and its transformation into a new, environmentally friendly industrial park will thus bring not only opportunities for the development of various companies, but especially the removal of much of the environmental burden that has plagued Kladno for decades.
