There was still anticipation at the symbolic groundbreaking. “Now it starts,” said Christian Lösel; Photos from the spring of 2018 show the then mayor of Ingolstadt and other participants enthusiastically handling shovels and earth. The tenor was that the long-planned congress center and hotel could finally take shape. A prestigious project on around 6600 square meters of floor space, with a large conference hall and seminar rooms, space for a total of around 2200 guests and 220 beds.
Since then, however, it has mainly started with the construction delays. The originally announced completion in spring 2021 could not be kept. The first quarter of 2022 was later mentioned. But now it could work out in the fall. There is a “final” construction schedule, says Norbert Forster from IFG Ingolstadt. The municipal company is responsible for part of the project. The completion of construction is therefore scheduled for “end of September” – “unless strange circumstances arise”.
Surprises for the planners can, however, be found several times in the history of the project. For years, the city has been discussing the congress center, which should offer space for larger events and thus close a “crucial gap”, as the 2014 town hall survey did Ingolstadt informed formulated. But even the local hoteliers mobilized at times against the idea, more precisely against the hotel being considered in connection with the congress center.
There were always new time wasters
To this day, critics are bothered by the dimensions of the project planned in the vicinity of the Danube and the New Palace. Even when it actually started, new time wasters kept popping up. Sometimes the archaeological explorations took longer than expected, sometimes the lack of building materials caused problems. “If a pipe is missing somewhere, you can’t close a ceiling,” says Forster. The ventilation regulations have also been tightened in the meantime – with the result that another basement had to be built under the already completed basement for fire protection.
If the congress center and hotel are actually finished in autumn, it could still take until next year for their opening: acceptance is still waiting before that. According to the current plan, this would be completed by mid-December at best. It would then be up to the Maritim Group, which has leased the congress center and hotel, to get the business up and running. Maritim is currently advertising online that it will welcome guests “from the beginning of 2023” – rooftop terrace “with a view of the castle”, swimming pool and restaurants included.
The costs will be in the hundreds of millions
The question remains: Who will bear the additional costs that arise from rescheduling and delays? Or: How much does the ensemble actually cost? Put simply, the IFG is responsible for the construction of the congress center and its underground car park; the hotel is built by an investor. Structurally, however, one part is difficult to separate from the other. According to its own statements, the IFG is not allowed to publish the figures of a private company. The only official word from there is that you are moving within the framework that was last approved by the city in autumn 2021.
What is known, however, is that the construction of the underground car park alone has devoured around 50 million euros so far. The whole project should end up costing a three-digit million amount. A look at the nearby foundry hall also shows how quickly the sums can increase during construction. It is expected to be converted by September 2023 to become the home of the Museum of Concrete Art and Design. But the costs for this would have been loud IngolstadtToday doubled since the first plans to around 48 million euros, partly because of problems with the groundwater. “Visit to the Schanzer million grave”, headlined the local news platform after a visit to the construction site in the spring.
For the tenant Maritim alone, the delays around the congress center can perhaps be seen as a stroke of luck. Because if everything had gone according to plan since the groundbreaking, the group would have had to take over the ensemble at Corona weddings. So the hope remains that not only the prestige project will be finished one day, but also the pandemic by then.