Council objects to proposal Mayor Sridharan wants hotel at the Rhine
BONN · At first, the area currently occupied by a former student dormitory was reserved for a new festival theater. Then it was considered for a lot to build low income apartments. The city remains in favor of finding an investor to develop a hotel on the area near the Beethoven Hall.
On Wednesday evening, the city administration defended its controversial proposal for a hotel on the Erzbergeufer, an area at the Rhine River between the Kennedy Bridge and the Beethoven Hall. It wants to sell the area to a hotel investor. Opposition groups reacted with skepticism, and the decision was postponed.
The council majority, composed of members from the CDU, FDP and the Green parties had already made critical statements about the proposal and they have now agreed to take the item off the agenda for the time being. This means there will be no decision made at the next city council meeting on February 2.
Some in the city council would like to see low income apartments there instead, and the city administration says this is possible but the land is too valuable for such a use. “From an economic standpoint, and with respect to the tight housing situation,” Lord Mayor Sridharan said “it would not make sense.” He suggested instead to use proceeds from the sale of the land to build low income housing in other areas.
Victoria Appelbe, who is the head of economic development in Bonn, emphasized that Bonn is in need of more hotels, also because of the conferences at the World Conference Center Bonn (WCCB). Currently, Bonn has 9,409 hotel beds with another 970 being planned. In the past years, the number of beds has increased by around 1,620 - a “slight increase” in comparison to other cities, noted Appelbe. The occupancy rate in Bonn hotels had risen slightly to around 46 percent.
Christoph Becker of the Hotel and Restaurant Association Nordrhein (Dehoga) doesn’t see the need for further hotels. The Mariott opened in 2016 with 336 rooms and a Motel 1 is being built near the Kennedy Bridge; it will have 217 rooms. Sridharan defended his plans in a statement to General Anzeiger, “We know from the UN and other NGO’s that there is a big need especially for 3-star hotels.” Still, he recognizes the problems of hoteliers and is interested in trying to get more conferences and meetings at the WCCB on weekends.
(Orig. text: Andreas Baumann, Lisa Inhoffen)
