Real estate project management company EIKA Development, which announced plans in June to build a hotel with a restaurant, conference center and small SPA area in Utena on behalf of Translinija, has now completed design management work and received a building permit..
Easy cooperation with Utena institutions
The EIKA Development team was responsible for the design management of the technical project up to the construction permit. Martynas Žibūda, CEO of EIKA Development, was pleased that the construction permit was obtained on the first try, just a month after the application was accepted.
“In Vilnius, for example, a building permit can be obtained at best on the second attempt, which takes about 2.5 months. In this case, we managed to get it done faster due to the smooth and efficient cooperation between the institutions,” he said.
According to him, both the municipality and the representatives of the engineering networks always responded quickly to all questions, provided comments, and cooperated, so we managed to quickly find solutions acceptable to everyone.
M. Žibūda said that the Utena institution used the “Communication” function in the building permit information system “TPS vartai”, which, unfortunately, is not used by Vilnius, although it is very useful in speeding up processes.
“Such a process is very gratifying when you can precisely clarify comments with specific people, thus speeding up the coordination processes,” he said with satisfaction.
Will be located in a historic former bank building
According to the project of the architectural studio “Archispektras”, the five-story building will house 46 rooms. The basement will house auxiliary rooms, a small SPA area and a gym. The architecture of the facade of the new building is combined with the old bank building. The graphic solution of the facade emphasizes verticals and window division proportions similar to those of the interwar building.
The planned extension is taller than the existing bank building, but it is set back so that the bank building on J. Basanavičiaus Street is not blocked or otherwise obscured from all main viewpoints. According to the architects’ plan, the new extension will create a non-dominant background building for the bank. In addition, the old building will be reflected in the mirrored facade of the new building.
The new hotel and restaurant will be located in two buildings. The bank building, which was built in 1933, is planned to house administrative premises, a restaurant and two VIP suites. The Bank of Lithuania building, designed by famous interwar modernist architects Arno Funk and Mykolas Songaila, is included in the Register of Cultural Properties, therefore the structure and layout of the premises in this part will be changed minimally, preserving the valuable features of the building.
The historic building will be connected by a two-level glass gallery and an underground connection to the new part of the building, which will stand on the site of a bank extension built in the 1980s.
The decision on the start of construction is planned to be made in the second half of this year.