Exclusive: Congress hall at Munich Airport will be 120 million euros more expensive - resistance to the project is growing

Created: 04/02/2022Updated: 04/02/2022, 10:30 am

By: Dirk Walter

The Arena: So far there is only this visualization of the major project.

Image: SW Munich Real Estate © SW Munich Real Estate

Again, a major project has to be recalculated due to rising costs.

The event arena planned at the airport should now cost 320 million euros instead of 200.

The investors still want to stick to the project.

There will be a preliminary decision on Wednesday.

Munich/Freising – It is a project with many names that a group of private investors led by Freising-based SWMunich Real Estate GmbH has been pursuing for two years: the hall planned in the north-west of the airport is sometimes referred to as a multifunctional concert and congress center, sometimes as "MUCcc". - multifunctional Convention Center -, as a concert arena or simply as an "arena".

As dazzling as the name is, so diverse are the goals being pursued with the building: concerts with up to 20,000 visitors should be possible in the hall as well as live shows, TV productions or company events.

On Wednesday, the city council of the city of Freising, to whose corridor the previously undeveloped, ten-hectare property belongs, is to take “approving note” of the project and thus initiate further planning.

That's what it says in the 263-page - previously confidential - meeting documents that are available to our newspaper.

The congress hall at Munich Airport is becoming more expensive - a hotel and multi-storey car park are also planned

The documents show that the project will be a lot more expensive than previously known.

An investment volume of 200 million euros has so far been named as the official house number.

That's what it said on Friday on the SW Munich homepage.

But the papers for the meeting say: "According to its own statements, SW Munich will probably invest around 320 million euros in the location." The project also includes a 200-bed hotel and a large multi-storey car park.

The increase in price by 120 million euros is confirmed by SWMMunich spokesman Jan Manz.

The sum would have resulted in advanced planning.

The project will "of course" be pursued.

SWMunich expects planning and approval in two years and a construction period of three years.

According to this, the hall could stand in 2027.

A "steady state of operation", i.e. profitability,

can be reached in the fourth year after opening.

Auditors from Deloitte have created an analysis - but city councilors are only allowed to see them in the city hall.

By the way: everything from the region is also available in our regular Erding newsletter.

Munich Airport: The “Koa Kongresshalle” alliance is founded

In the Freising city council, the mood has so far been per project.

A majority from "Freisinger Mitte", to which OB Tobias Eschenbacher belongs, as well as the CSU and FW have spoken out in favor of the project in the past.

Greens, ÖDP and left are in the minority.

But the resistance is growing: on Monday the alliance "Koa Kongresshalle am Flughafen" wants to be founded in Munich - initiators are the federation for nature conservation and the battle-tested anti-runway alliance "Aufgemuckt".

Spokesman Christian Magerl sees "serious disadvantages" for the region.

Congress hall at Munich Airport: It is 1.2 km to the S-Bahn

A sticking point is the traffic concept – how will the estimated one million visitors a year get to the arena?

There are also new findings on this in the documents: “For the majority of visitors arriving from afar”, it says there, “is a night-time return by public transport (public transport – ed.) after the end of the concert not or not reliably possible.” In addition, the nearest S-Bahn station “Besucherpark” is 1.2 kilometers away on foot.

The opponents of the project therefore expect that the majority of visitors would arrive in their own cars, but in some cases also by plane.

The SW Munich Real Estate speaks of "Germany's first climate-neutral concert arena" - because the building, architecturally extravagant with an outer skeleton ("exoskeleton"),

The extension of Terminal 1 (T1) turns out to be a cost trap.

The new gate clearly exceeds the planned 450 million euros.