No questions about aja hotel - everything was different and peaceful

The first public meeting of Enrico Corongiu remained without nuances, let alone the commotion.

Of course, the TSV hall was also about the much-cited aja hotel.

The referendum on this could once again pose a real ordeal for the place.

Mittenwald

- The last time - before Corona - it was jam-packed and highly emotional.

17 months later there will be another citizens' meeting in the TSV hall.

Once again, one topic overshadows everything else: the planned aja hotel, which the people of Mittenwald will probably be able to decide on in autumn.

Otherwise everything is different on Wednesday evening: no heated atmosphere, the visitors at a distance, a different protagonist, not a single question.

Which even Mayor Enrico Corongiu (SPD) might have surprised a little.

Before that, the Social Democrat explicitly commented on the much-discussed million-dollar project between the town hall and the train station in his premiere speech to the citizens, who were handpicked due to the pandemic.

In contrast to his CSU predecessor Adolf Hornsteiner, who failed not least because of this, Corongiu consciously relied on objectivity instead of emphasis on aja-Resort. “The municipal council must always have the big picture in mind.” For example, the finances. "What every local council wants least of all is tax increases."

But they threaten if the income in the key branch of tourism collapses. This is what happened in times of lockdown. In the absence of alternatives, the only option in the future will be to flee to prosperous tourism. Especially since the number of guest beds is chronically declining. While it was 4570 in 2008, according to Corongiu there are only 3837 in 2019. Even if the Silva Mountain on Latscheneck, the low-budget hotel on Ladestrasse and the aja-Resort on Bahnhofstrasse were to be found, you would only get in terms of guest beds to the 1999 number, Corongiu calculated. “This development is crucial for us.” Likewise the jobs, of which there have been 15 percent fewer in Mittenwald in the past ten years.

A hotel of the category aja with a huge marketing budget could change that and many other things as well, the town hall chief is firmly convinced - bringing younger guests, for example.

The price of the property depends on the type of use.

Mayor Enrico Corongiu

And of course the town hall chief had to go into the price of the property on Wednesday. Because as the only written request of the evening from Armin Görlich, at the time an ardent proponent of a new indoor swimming pool, showed, the opinion stubbornly persists in the village that the community is squandering its own land at a ridiculous price. "It is a special field of tourism," Corongiu repeated almost like a prayer wheel. “This is given a different value.” The independent expert committee has calculated the amount of 220 euros. “With a purely residential development, the prices would of course shoot up there.” With regard to the frequently cited standard land value, Corongiu informed the audience that Mittenwald alone is divided into eleven zones. Accordingly, one commutes between 85 and 800 euros. Once again the mayor made it clear:“The price of the property depends on the type of use.” That is why the price for commercial property at the fish pond is well below 100 euros.

Furthermore, the premiere speaker Corongiu did not want to sweep his negotiating success under the carpet: 296 instead of 324 rooms, four instead of five floors, no parking deck at the train station, no apartment house with 25 holiday apartments on Dammkarstrasse and a public spa area.

That is possible, ”Corongiu assured.

“This is also done in other places” - for example in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

"All of this makes it clear that the Deutsche Seereederei (editor's note: the investor) is holding on to the Mittenwald location."

There you could calculate with the aja hotel alone with the visitor's tax (220,000 euros), the tourism contribution (55,000 euros) and the property tax B (about 30,000 euros) with income of over 300,000 euros.

The town hall chief also tried to refute the myth of the concrete block. He has “the promise” that the DSR will present three different concepts to the local council. Each under the maxim of green hospitality. In good German: DSR relies on e-mobility, solar thermal energy or healthy building materials. "The proportion of wood should increase significantly," said the mayor in this context. Then everything was said from his point of view. Now the audience had the floor. But they were silent, not a single question. It was completely different in February 2020 with the turbulent Citizen Info.