Vendors merchandising their products in the underpass at the Brno Central Station have their days numbered. Photo: @Brnodaily
Brno, August 26 (BD) – After haggling over legal issues and property rights, Brno Municipality has finally terminated a lease with several vendors. Brno-Center plans to recreate the underpass into a place worth of staying, not only passing through.
Year and a half ago, the town hall had market stalls by outside wall of the underpass demolished. Now, it is striving to move the entire merchandise community out.
First notices of termination of a lease have been handed over. Cheap toys, clothes, shoes and miscellaneous goods are a thorn in the eye of the Municipality. “We expect that the underpass will gradually become cleaner and nicer, maybe with tasteful city lights – it will look like citizen’s imagination of the Central European city,” Martin Landa, Mayor of Brno-Centre (Žít Brno), describes the effort.
Unpaid bills of unknown owners
Tens of stalls hold either expired or no lease. Market stalls in the underpass have often unpaid bills and late payments of rental.
Nevertheless, it is not easy to resolve property rights and other legal issues and just get rid of stalls. Often, it is rather hard enough to find a proprietor of a stall. “Legal relationships are very complicated in this regard, their roots started in 90ies under wild circumstances and a simply termination of a lease is unfortunately not a solution for all cases,” Hladík adds in reference to the immediate cleaning out of the underpass.
Last Mohican
In August, Brno council agreed to terminate a lease of two vendors. “As soon as the 3-months statutory period of notice for the termination of a lease agreement expires, stalls will be cleared out,” First Deputy Mayor, Petr Hladík informs.
Current termination of a lease refers to the stalls right in front of escalators of the shopping center Letmo. The campaign to move market vendors out of the city center has been running the last two years.
Last autumn, market stalls by Centrum at Malinovské square were thrown down. Similar fate awaits probably all stall in the underpass.
According to Mayor, the town hall plans to hold a public architectural competition as for design of the underpass: ”We want to embellish it, so we do not need to be ashamed of it. We would be glad if people spend more time there, but right now, they only pass through.”
The “last Mohican” of the underpass merchandisers will be the stall selling grilled chickens. Its lease is due in 2018.
