"The council's decision is an important signal for our city: our city administration with its services in the city center will continue to be central and easily accessible for citizens. We are also permanently strengthening the attractiveness and function of the city center as an administrative, economic and social center," says Mayor Katja Dörner of Bonn.
In March 2024, the city council decided to vacate the City Hall in 2027 due to its considerable need for renovation. For this reason, the city administration will have to temporarily move to other locations. At the same time, the administration was commissioned to prepare a fundamental decision on the future of the City Hall site.
Mix of uses will revitalize the area
At the proposal of the administration, the council decided on a partial demolition with integrated new construction and core renovation of the parts of the building to be retained. The majority of the future floor space will be used by the city administration. This would correspond to between 1,370 and 1,600 workplaces. The remaining areas will be shared by other uses such as a day care center, restaurants, cultural facilities, meeting places and housing. These additional uses must be compatible with existing planning law and account for at least 25 percent of the usable space. "We want to revitalize the City Hall site with a mix of uses. People should enjoy spending time here," said the Mayor of Bonn.
The variant N3c recommended by the experts dbp dasbauprojekt GmbH (Berlin) and Drees & Sommer (Cologne) under various scenarios (see extensive presentation in the council information system (opens in a new tab)) assumes construction costs for the City Hall of 466 million euros. Of this (depending on the variant), around 75 million euros are attributable to the additional uses that could be rented out. According to the experts' calculations, using the City Hall site as the administrative headquarters proves to be more economical than renting comparable space on a permanent basis. Planning could take place in the years 2025 to 2027 and implementation in the years 2027 to 2031.