3.4 million euros. That’s how much rent the state of Hesse pays every year for an empty government building that until recently housed the Wiesbaden tax office. This is confirmed by the State Office for Construction and Real Estate Hessen (LBIH) of the F.A.Z. Since the building from the 1970s on Schiersteiner Berg is in a state of disrepair, the 700 officers have since moved to a newly built complex nearby. Nevertheless, rent still has to be paid – according to the LBIH, this is what the rental agreement says, which runs until 2035. There are currently negotiations between the state and the real estate company OFB, which owns the building – the state wants “as soon as possible”, as they say, demolition and new construction. There is no agreement yet. Next door was the dilapidated Ministry of Social Affairs until 2019, for which a new building was rented. Until the demolition, Hesse also paid twice the rent there.
Timo Steppat
Correspondent for Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland based in Wiesbaden.
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Most recently, the contract details of real estate deals in the state of Hesse from the Koch era caused problems. Between 2004 and 2006, the black-yellow coalition under Prime Minister Roland Koch (CDU) sold 55 buildings in the state and concluded long-term leases with the buyers. The buildings sold included the Landeshaus in Wiesbaden, completed in 1907, in which the Ministry of Economics is based, but also a large number of administrative complexes throughout the state. This includes the police college, for which the country received 77 million euros; By 2019 alone, costs of 81 million euros had been incurred for rent and building renovations.