Bonn inner city First shops open in Maximilian Center
Bonn · The project manager says it was a record construction time, with Maximilian Center finished after only one year. While businesses on the lower level open this Saturday, Irish fashion retailer Primark will open in autumn.
The Maximilian Center opposite Bonn Central Train Station was completed in a record time of just one year. The first shops on the lower level open this Saturday. Moritz Tank is project manager of Ten Brinke, the firm which built the Maximilian Center and sold it to the Bayerische Versorgungskammer (BVK) based in Munich. He calls it a "quiet opening", since the clothing retailer Primark, which will be the main tenant, will not open its doors until autumn.
The completion of the structure with around 9,000 square meters of retail space is on time and on budget, Tank says and laughs. "Many tenants probably didn't expect this. Now they are lagging behind with the outfitting of their stores." The demolition of the former structure which had previously occupied the site - at the edge of the "Bonner Loch" - started at the beginning of 2017, and was particularly challenging.
There were problems because of the narrow construction site, and the building process there also had to be coordinated with ongoing construction of the Urban Soul project nearby. Add to that, Tank says that considerably more asbestos had been found during the demolition than had been anticipated. As he explains, Ten Brinke invested around 100 million euros in the project. 24 tenants are to move into the building, with Primark taking over four floors, leaving only the lower basement level to other tenants. Starting this Saturday, eating establishments, a dm drug store, a smaller Rewe supermarket and a pharmacy will open on the lower level. "We want to offer a pleasant area inside, especially for bus and train passengers," explains Tank.
Not all citizens like the new building, as they have already made clear in many letters to the GA. Some of the unhappiness has to do with the architecture and others would have preferred not to have had any building on the site at all. They would have wished for an open space in front of the historically listed Bonn Central Station. Tank is not happy with the wooden fence erected a few days ago around the so-called roundabout at the rear of the building opposite the central bus station. "We erected the fence as a temporary measure for optical reasons," he explains. Originally, there were considerations to demolish the roof over the roundabout, but that would have caused big problems with the drainage. "All the water would have gone down to the basement.”
But the wooden fence is only a temporary solution. The city and municipal utilities company SWB want to improve this, explained city spokeswoman Monika Hörig, but it will not be resolved by this Saturday. As reported, the alcohol and drug scene has shifted from the roundabout to the Kaiserbrunnen, which has caused displeasure among passers-by and residents.
Orig. text: Lisa Inhoffen
Translation: ck
