The city has decided who should take on the approximately 700 million euro renovation of the Gasteig. This Wednesday, the Munich Spatial Development Company, or MRG for short, will be presented to the general assembly of the city council as the person responsible for the project. The now wholly owned subsidiary of the city is to modernize the cultural center on the banks of the Isar in a so-called partnering model with a private company. “We have a big task ahead of us that cannot be handled by the administration alone,” said Mayor Dieter Reiter (SPD). Therefore it will be passed on to the MRG. “I’m happy if the project is finally gaining momentum.”
Cultural Mayor Dominik Krause (Greens) also thinks this step is the right one. “The Gasteig fits well with MRG’s core tasks,” he said. Nevertheless, society will have to step up its game in order to manage the renovation. According to information from the SZ, internal considerations had also been given to whether the Stadtwerke München (SWM) should act as the city’s developer or whether a completely new company should be founded. Ultimately, those responsible decided in favor of MRG. The Gasteig project is getting this as a birthday present. It was founded 30 years ago to build the infrastructure for a huge new district on the site of the former airport in Riem: today’s trade fair city.
The Gasteig renovation is “a big task,” said managing director Boris Seyfarth, which he and his team want to tackle “with a lot of passion.” Of course, he also noticed that not every urban society has taken on the complicated renovation of Europe’s largest cultural center. But Seyfarth is convinced that his 35 employees will follow suit. “We’ll get it together. You don’t have to carry us hunting.” Now you have to look for a partner company from the construction industry. City politics will also have to decide whether MRG will only come in as a developer or take over the building on a long-term lease and then rent it back to the city or Gasteig GmbH.
The municipal utilities are said to have had legal reasons against taking over the renovation. Establishing a new company and equipping it with civil engineers, architects, IT specialists, lawyers or cost controllers could have delayed the renovation again. It is already expected to last until the early 2030s. “Our advantage is that we already have these structures,” said MRG managing director Seyfarth. Nevertheless, he has to look for more experts for this job, but he is in good spirits. The renovation is so exciting that it could act “like a magnet”. “It’s like Mount Everest. You only do it once in your life.”
The MRG was responsible for the entire infrastructure in the trade fair city, from the streets and green spaces to the cemetery expansion and new schools. For this purpose, it was founded by the city and a private consortium around the Bayerische Landesbank, which invested in the trade fair city. The trade fair company developed the new exhibition center itself. In 2015, the city took over MRG completely.
Since then she has worked as a municipal service provider. Large projects have been or are currently being completed. Last year, the six-class high school moved into its new building, and the secondary school will follow this fall. As another major project in the middle of the city, MRG is currently organizing the conversion of three ward blocks at the Schwabing Hospital. These are no longer needed for clinic operations; around 200 apartments for nursing staff are now to be built there.
With the renovation of the Gasteig, the company’s importance for the city will increase again. But the big numbers don’t scare Managing Director Seyfarth, after all the volume for the infrastructure in Riem was 750 million euros. He therefore looks forward to the renovation of the approximately 40-year-old cultural building with all its pitfalls. “We have already proven that we can carry out large projects with the agreed quality, on the agreed date and at the agreed costs.”