Berlin’s Senate has acknowledged that the influx of migrants and asylum seekers will soon reach the city’s limits, prompting the discussion of three large buildings to provide urgently needed accommodation for around 3,700 people. The Berlin B.Z. reported that the online portal Nius gained insight into the cost estimate of the Berlin Senate for one of the proposed projects, a massive, empty office complex at the Volkspark Hasenheide in the Neukölln district.
The responsible Landesamt für Flüchtlingsangelegenheit (LAF) examined the new location for the planned giant accommodation last year, with the Integration Senator Cansel Kiziltepe from the SPD responsible for the plans. According to the Nius article, the plans involve setting up 1,071 places for asylum seekers and 485 additional places for unaccompanied minor refugees, where age will be checked, among other things.
The Berlin Senate has already signed a lease agreement, confirmed by the Berlin Abgeordnetenhaus last year, for the ten-year lease of the complex until December 31, 2035, with a total of almost 165 million euros to be paid to the owner.
The large area, located opposite the Volkspark Hasenheide, borders the Kreuzberg-Friedrichshain district, with the main building situated between the U-Bahn stations Südstern and the Neukölln Hermannplatz, close to the former problematic park Hasenheide, which the Berlin Tagesspiegel described as the “largest drug hotspot in Neukölln” in 2019.
The last tenant before the building’s vacancy was the Deutsche Rentenversicherung. The website of the architecture firm Pechthold explains that the building, completed in 1995, integrates a historic, listed former festival hall, with the hall being planned in close coordination with the monument protection authorities to preserve the historical substance and continue using it. The building was originally planned for the Telekom, but due to the good spatial flexibility, it is also suitable for other tenants, making it a sustainable option.
The owner of the property is the Logos Grundstücks-Treuhand GmbH, a company of the KapHag Unternehmensgruppe, which, according to its own statements, has an investment volume of more than three billion euros, as reported by Nius. The details of the agreement between the Senate and the owner include a total of 164,574,412 euros in commitment authorizations, with monthly costs of over 1.2 million euros and a net rent of 26.54 euros per square meter, plus 10 euros per square meter in operating and ancillary costs.
The article in the Berlin Morgenpost on March 25 reported on the recent, burdensome figures of the Senate’s financial administration for the asylum theme, with a total of 2.1 billion euros in costs for the year 2024, which is more than five percent of the total state budget of around 40 billion euros. The costs include posts for accommodation, healthcare, welcome classes and kindergartens, as well as the high costs of taking in and caring for unaccompanied minor refugees, with 250 million euros spent in 2024, according to the financial administration.
The largest individual item is the 618 million euros spent by the Landesamt für Flüchtlingsangelegenheit or the social services of the districts, based on the Asylum Seekers’ Benefits Act, for asylum seekers.