Zurich: Will the Hardturm project fall through?
The SP is demanding that investors HRS and Credit Suisse include more non-profit housing in the Hardturm project - otherwise they want the bill to be rejected or rejected in parliament, the NZZ reported.
HRS, real estate investment vehicles of Credit Suisse and the Allgemeine Baugenossenschaft Zürich (ABZ) emerged as the winner of a competition with which the city of Zurich was looking for investors dou want to realize a privately financed soccer stadium as well as non-profit apartments and an investor project on the 55,000 sqm site. The "Ensemble" project envisages the construction of a soccer stadium as well as 174 non-profit and 600 private apartments. The total investment for the non-profit housing, the soccer stadium and the two high-rise buildings amounts to around CHF 570 million, according to earlier information.
The NZZ reported that the Social Democrats, however, are now demanding that HRS and Credit Suisse include more non-profit apartments in the project. The newspaper reports that the two investors have therefore proposed a swap deal: If the SP supports the Hardturm project, Credit Suisse will sell the city another plot of land from its portfolio on which up to 150 additional non-profit apartments could be built. This would result in a total of 324 apartments in cost rent and 600 in market rent, making more than a third of the new apartments non-profit. The newspaper report goes on to say that the SP wants to examine the offer within the municipal council faction these days.
If the SP were to reject this offer, the entire project would be in danger of failing, according to the NZZ. This is because the two high-rise residential buildings had been promised to the investors in the tender as an investment property, in return for which they would finance a soccer stadium for the city for 105 million CHF. If the original project were to be changed too much - for example by enlarging the cooperative housing estate - the entire project would probably have to be put out to tender again.
At the very least, the renegotiations are delaying the political process. The next commission meeting is scheduled for the end of May; whether the date for the referendum in November of this year can be met seems rather unlikely.
