In 1965, a nationwide reorganization of the starch industry took place, merging all starch companies in Czechoslovakia into a single national enterprise based in Havlíčkův Brod, which had been a centre for potato cultivation and processing since the 19th century. This created a need to build a new administrative building for 120 employees.

Based on negotiations with the Regional Union of Consumer Cooperatives in Hradec Králové, the management of Škrobárny decided to expand its administrative building with a self-service store and restaurant and to co-finance the construction. The town designated a plot of land for the building on what was then Gottwald Square, at the intersection of Jihlavská and Nádražní streets. However, in consideration of the surrounding buildings, only a four-storey structure was permitted.

In 1967, during the preparation of a new detailed zoning plan for a housing estate on the site of Smetana Square (HB-VP-SN1), the construction site was relocated. The planned building was moved to the town centre, specifically the northwestern part of Smetana Square, where, following the site’s redevelopment, one of the four envisaged nine-story buildings was allocated for it.

Architect Lubomír Driml, who was also behind the urban concept for the housing estate, designed the building as a tall vertical block above a horizontal base, with a prefabricated reinforced concrete skeleton forming its supporting structure. The entire building, constructed on the site of seven demolished family houses which formed the original historic development, was located on Smetana Square in such a way that its southern wall, with entrances to all the premises, faced Havlíčkova Street, while the northern wall, used for supplying the buildings, faced the courtyards of the neighbouring houses. The two lowest floors were allocated to Jednota, a state-run cooperative retail organization: the first housed a self-service shop with a buffet and accompanying facilities, while the second contained a restaurant and lounge. The administrative building of Škrobárny, occupying the third to ninth floors, was designed so that each floor had an entrance hall with an elevator, from which it was possible to enter the offices, which were logically arranged according to the organizational units of the company. On the eighth floor, in addition to offices, was the caretaker’s apartment and several studio apartments, while the ninth floor consisted of a walkable roof, which housed the elevator machinery and a formal social room with a bar and a view over the town.

The facade also served to distinguish the individual functional units. The sales areas were plastered with white Brizolit plaster. The two-story Jednota building was visually separated from the Škrobárny offices by black marble cladding on the third floor, while a suspended perimeter cladding of grey-blue Boletice panels, used since the 1960s primarily for the facades of administrative buildings, was chosen for the fourth to eighth floors.

This significantly oversized building, located near the historic centre, cleverly combines several functional units within a single building site and is an example of an inventive construction realized using standardized building elements.

After 1989, as a result of privatization and changes in ownership, the building gradually fell into disrepair. The modification of the building’s exterior cladding and the ongoing reconstruction of the interiors and their adaptation to the needs of the new owner have completely obscured the original appearance of the building, which was the headquarters of one of the most important companies in the town.