Up to now, in the triangle between Immenburgstraße, railroad tracks and Am Dickobskreuz, in addition to the ex-slaughterhouse, together with also partial areas of the neighboring waste recycling plant (MVA), a Remondis paper sorting plant, have become the site of street prostitution, unpaved parking spaces and other wastelands - in terms of urban development, quite a chaos. Now the Stadtwerke Bonn (SWB) is planning a liberation strike: They want to combine their own properties with the adjacent area of the entrepreneur Detlev Klaudt, buy the slaughterhouse from the city, clean up the contaminated soil there and rebuild the entire triangle from a single source. As reported, SWB GmbH and Klaudt are founding Quartier.BonnWest GmbH, which is to act as the developer.

These are the building blocks: a Remondis waste disposal site, a paper sorting plant, a new Bonnorange recycling center, another new building into which the municipal building yard is to move from Lievelingsweg, a parking garage. On the site of the slaughterhouse and the former freight station, the concept envisages office buildings and the Westwerk. The buildings are to have green roofs and facades and solar panels. Retail and restaurants are not planned. Residential construction is also excluded, according to SWB, because of the proximity of the industrial operations.

A bridge for pedestrians and cyclists is planned to connect the new neighborhood with the Bonn-West stop. Immenburgstrasse is to be widened and made more attractive for pedestrians and cyclists. Car traffic to the "Innovation Triangle" is to roll primarily via Karlstrasse and Immenburgstrasse. A traffic survey is in progress.

"We have done a lot of preliminary work with various studies, agreements and planning," emphasized SWB Managing Director Peter Weckenbrock. "As a municipal company, urban development is close to our hearts." The new SWB Supervisory Board Chairman Tom Schmidt (Greens) already spoke of a "great success" if the plans can be approved by the Council and implemented: "A neglected area will be used, we will create commercial space and, with Westwerk, an event hall that Bonn's rock and pop culture has been missing until now." Westwerk has support from both the city administration and the council. Entrepreneur Klaudt also seems satisfied: finally, the entire site can be put to an appropriate use, he told the GA on the phone.

Demolition of the slaughterhouse could begin next year. SWB is aiming for a resolution on the development plan to be passed in the first quarter of 2023. After that, construction work could begin. Time is pressing: The anchor tenant - according to GA information, a company from the service sector - wants to rent around 40,000 square meters of office space as early as the beginning of 2026. And the Westwerk operators, the city writes in a draft resolution, also want to start as soon as possible.

A study of what the concert hall could look like already exists; a lease agreement with Westwerk Betriebs GmbH has been negotiated. "Whether the project is really financially feasible will also depend on the expected increase in construction costs and the market situation in the event sector," said SWB Managing Director Weckenbrock. In the end, that would have to be decided by the Westwerk makers.

They were optimistic. "We are very pleased, because we have never been as close to realization as we are today," Thomas Kläser, managing director of Westwerk Betriebs GmbH, was quoted as saying in an SWB press release. "Not much is missing now, and we finally have planning security for our heart's project - thanks to a very constructive and cooperative partnership with our negotiating partners at SWB and the city."

The project will require the removal of the street prostitution boxes from the MVA site. They are to be relocated to the northwest corner of the triangle between Am Dickobskreuz and the railroad tracks. The association for help for the endangered will look after that, which is already located there. The area is to be equipped with sanitary facilities and fenced off. The city is required by law to provide a safe place for street prostitution. The overall project will be presented to the City Council on September 16 as a decision in principle. On August 24, the Bonn district council will discuss it.

Original text: Andreas Baumann

Translation: Mareike Graepel