Forum Middle Rhine
| Forum Middle Rhine | |
|---|---|
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| Forum Middle Rhine | |
| Basic data | |
| Location: | Koblenz |
| Opening: | September 26, 2012 |
| Sales area : | 20,000 m² |
| Shops: | 80 |
| Visitors: | 16,279 daily |
| Operator: | ECE project management |
| Website: | www.forum-mittelrhein.com |
| Transport links | |
| Railway station: | Koblenz city center |
| Bus stop: | Central square |
| Omnibus : | Lines 1, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 27, 116, 160, 318, 319, 358, 460, 485, 570, 571, 573, 576 and 650 |
| Motorways : | A 3 , A 48 , A 61 , B 9 |
| Other: | Luisenstraße (car park entrance) |
| Parking spaces : | 750 |
| Technical specifications | |
| Construction time : | September 2010 – September 2012 |
| Architects : | Benthem Crouwel |
| Building-costs: | approx. 180 million euros |
The Forum Mittelrhein is a shopping center on the central square in Koblenz . The shopping center was built by ECE Projektmanagement , which already operates the Löhr Center in Koblenz, and opened on September 26, 2012. Next to it is the Forum Confluentes , a cultural building in which the Middle Rhine Museum , the Koblenz City Library and the Romanticum found a new home on June 20, 2013 .
Central square
The central square is not a historically grown square in the old town , but was created after the Second World War as part of the rebuilding of the city of Koblenz. After the department store was closed in 1996, the central square was hardly visited by people and was neglected. The implementation of the development plans for a redesign dragged on due to resistance in the population and the disagreement in the Koblenz city council. The proponents of the "Forum Mittelrhein" project were ultimately able to prevail. Construction work began in August 2010, and the department store along with the underground car park has now also been demolished. The new central square is located between Forum Mittelrhein and Forum Confluentes and includes a 6,000 m² open space with a green island (390 m²) and a water feature (200 m²).
history
Due to the changes in the central square in the 1990s - a lot of commercial space was fallow, buildings were empty and there were vacant lots - the Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of the Interior and Sports suggested a reorganization of the square for the first time in 2001. On January 30, 2003, the Koblenz city council established the redevelopment area “Central Square and Adjacent Areas”. Not only should the square itself be redesigned, but also the adjacent traffic areas. The city of Koblenz was able to buy up the site of the former Ernst Rodenwaldt Institute. At the end of 2005, the building complex was demolished, and at the end of 2007 work began on excavating the site.
In 2007, an architecture competition for the redesign of the square followed, which was won in March 2008 by the Benthem Crouwel architecture firm with its model of a “Forum Mittelrhein”. The model includes a mixed use of the central square by culture and retail. The plan called for construction to start in December 2008 and completion of the project in autumn 2010, in good time before the start of the 2011 Federal Horticultural Show . At the meeting of the Koblenz city council on March 6, 2008, all plans were put on hold due to differences of opinion ("Zentralplatzschlacht"), but it was decided to continue working with Benthem Crouwel. The following period was marked by controversial discussions among the population about the type of building. The "Forum Mittelrhein" or the creation of a park ("Casino Park") were up for debate .
The Koblenz city council decided on May 15, 2009 to implement the "Forum Mittelrhein" project on the central square and on June 24, 2010 issued the building permit . On July 1, 2010, the last contracts were signed between the city of Koblenz, ECE and Strabag Real Estate; the ownership structure and the financing had been clarified beforehand. Construction work started in August 2010.
The shopping center was completed after a two-year construction period and opened on September 26, 2012. The cultural building was opened on June 20, 2013.
Construction and use
The “Forum Mittelrhein” model envisaged the creation of two buildings, a cultural building and a shopping center, with an open space in between on a construction area of over 30,000 m². The area was connected to the Koblenz pedestrian zone while the surrounding streets were being renovated at the same time. The construction costs for the entire project amounted to around 180 million euros.
The shopping center has a sales area of 20,000 m² and is operated by ECE Projektmanagement . Space for around 80 to 90 shops was created on three levels. Above is a multi-storey car park with three parking decks for approx. 750 cars . The planners reckoned that around 600 new jobs would be created and that the city of Koblenz will receive annual tax income ( trade and property tax ) of around 800,000 euros. The catchment area comprises over 710,000 people with a purchasing power of around three billion euros. At the Expo Real in October 2009, the shopping center design received the gold pre-certificate from the German Sustainable Building Council for the criteria of energy efficiency and environmental protection .
criticism
The construction project was heavily criticized from the start because of the size of the project and the costs. At first there was a controversial discussion among the population about the type of development (shopping center or casino park). Above all, the critics complained that ECE, which also operates the Löhr-Center in Koblenz, will control over 50% of the retail space in Koblenz after the new shopping center has been completed. The costs are not affordable for Koblenz, so the city has to pay the client and investor Züblin 1.5 million euros a year in rent, which is a completely excessive value. The city's retail trade would change dramatically, long-established retailers would have to give up and streets would become deserted. The newly emerging traffic pollution would also lead to more noise and environmental pollution .
The FDP in the Koblenz city council had specifically and for the first time in the city's history obtained a resident application with almost 3,000 signatures and was later awarded the local politician's prize "The glass town hall". The disputes about the type of building later also led to the establishment of a new free voter group . The citizens' initiative Zukunft für Koblenz (BIZ) received 10.0% of the votes in the city council elections on June 7, 2009. The main theme of their election campaign was the central square and that no second shopping center should be built in Koblenz.
The zoning plans were also highly controversial and were often stopped by the courts. This led to delays in realizing the project planned by politicians. The “Citizens' Initiative Central Square” lodged a complaint with the European Commission in 2008 because the building project had not been tendered, but was ultimately unsuccessful. Most recently, the Higher Administrative Court of Rhineland-Palatinate reprimanded the development plan in an urgent procedure in March 2010. The number of floors in the shopping center had to be reduced as a result.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ News: Zentralplatz- Forum Mittelrhein in: koblenz.de
- ↑ Brochure from the city of Koblenz on the new development of the central square (PDF; 9.5 MB)
- ↑ Data from the center on the operator's website ( memento of the original from September 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . ECE homepage. Retrieved October 1, 2015.
- ^ Arguments of the citizens' initiative Zentralplatz
Coordinates: 50 ° 21 ′ 28 " N , 7 ° 35 ′ 46" E