St.Gallen: Planned Olma trade fair expansion until 2024
The city and canton of St.Gallen want to help finance the planned expansion of the Olma site to include a new exhibition and event hall.
The construction project, which envisages a partial covering of the A1 city highway in St.Gallen, is to be supported by the public sector with a total of CHF 30 million. The city and canton want to contribute 18 and twelve million respectively. Another component of the city's proposal is an adjustment of the ownership and building lease relationships.
Total cost of over 163 million
The extension to the east of the Olma site is scheduled for completion in 2024. For this project, the Rosenberg Tunnel is to be extended by around 200 meters to the east so that the new Hall 1 with a floor area of around 12,500 square meters can be realized above it. The total investment volume amounts to 163.4 million. Of this, 41.6 million is for the highway overlay and 121.8 million for the new building and the extended site design.
Most of the site is owned by the City of St.Gallen, which has granted Olma the building lease free of charge until 2062. With the commissioning of the new Hall 1, the building lease contracts for all areas are to be concluded uniformly and newly for a fee at a reduced building lease rate of 0.5 percent. In addition, the city wants to make four plots of land southeast of Rosenheimstrasse available to Olma and is rezoning them from the commercial zone to the zone for public buildings and facilities.
The Olma Messen Cooperative will bear the major part of the investments itself (28.4 million own funds, 105 million bank loans). The contributions from the canton and the city are mutually conditional. The corresponding bills will be discussed by the city parliament on September 26, 2017, and by the cantonal council in its first reading during its session at the end of November.
Referendum expected in March 2018
In the event of a positive decision by the city parliament, the project (financial contribution) is subject to a mandatory referendum. The municipal referendum is scheduled for March 2018. The cantonal decision, in turn, is subject to an optional referendum. The earliest start of construction would be at the end of 2021, with the opening of the new hall scheduled for the end of 2024.
