Elbtower construction company apparently wants to dismantle the crane and special technology
Due to stalled negotiations over a museum, the construction company wants to dismantle cranes and technology. The city of Hamburg should be put under pressure.
Quick Look
The Lupp construction company involved in the Elbtower is putting pressure on the city of Hamburg and is threatening to dismantle important special technology in order to accelerate faltering negotiations about a planned natural history museum.
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
Following the bankruptcy of the Signa Group, construction work on the Elbtower in Hamburg has been on hold since October 2023. The city is negotiating to house a natural history museum.
Construction work on the Elbtower in Hamburg's HafenCity has been suspended since October 2023 following the bankruptcy of René Benko's Signa Group.
Negotiations have been ongoing since last year about accommodating a museum in the Elbtower - which would also mean that the city would cover part of the costs. The Lupp company involved in the construction of the Elbtower is now putting pressure on the negotiations to accelerate.
According to a report in the Frankfurter Allgemeine, the company that built the shell of the building, which was stopped at a height of 100 meters, wants to dismantle a high-rise crane on November 18th and 19th - and if that is not enough, they will also remove the special technology that is absolutely necessary for further construction.
“If we take all of this with us, then this building can no longer be built,” said Lupp managing director Thilo Moser to the newspaper. The message is: “City of Hamburg, move. Otherwise we'll be out of here." The construction company based in Nidda, Hesse, has now invested 60 million euros in the Elbtower. Claims of 37 million euros had already accrued due to unpaid invoices in the first construction phase.
In October last year, the Senate declared that the city wanted to house the planned natural history museum in the Elbtower and take over almost half of the building for a fixed price of 595 million euros.
Since then, negotiations have been ongoing with the consortium led by real estate investor Dieter Becken, which also includes the construction company Lupp. Recently, however, the Hamburg real estate company Büll & Liedtke made a new offer for a natural history museum.
Specifically, it is about parts of the city office at Besenbinderhof, which the company wants to convert into a turnkey natural history museum for 495 million euros - 100 million euros cheaper.
In the past, Hamburg has committed itself to building a modern natural history museum. The background is the state treaty concluded in 2021 between North Rhine-Westphalia and the Hanseatic city to found the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change (LIB). According to the city, the Hamburg Museum of Nature and the Bonn Museum Koenig were brought together. However, a building is still missing for the Hamburg Natural History Museum.
What to Watch
AI outlook — possibilities, not facts
Dismantling of the building crane and special technology on November 18th and 19th
Likely · Within days
Open Questions
- How will the city of Hamburg react to the ultimatum?
- Will the Natural History Museum be built in the Elbtower or at the Besenbinderhof?
