By changing the construction schedule, Isaria has ensured a safe walk or ride to school in partnership with Deutsche Wohnen
Dachau, September 30, 2021. Right in time for the start of the school year, project-development company Isaria and property owner Deutsche Wohnen are taking away the fencing on the building site of the former Dachau paper mill on Freisinger Strasse. This clears the sidewalk and bike path, making the way to school safe. The building site’s fence was needed to secure the demolition work and avoid creating hazards for pedestrians. The property drops off about four meters behind the sidewalk and the cleared-out site needed to be remediated, so the building site was originally planned to remain fenced until April 2022. In order to offer schoolchildren and pedestrians a safe path for the start of the 2021 school year, the companies changed their construction schedule and backfilled the property along the path’s edge ahead of time. As a result, the fence could be positioned directly on the property limits and clear the way on the sidewalk. The building site’s fence, which was built as a wooden structure and is intended to serve as an artistic canvas in the future, extends from the calendar hall on Konrad-Adenauer-Strasse to Freisinger Strasse and the Mühlbach river, a length of 335 meters. The extra work was performed by the company Karl, which is also responsible for the demolition and site remediation.
“We thought it was important that schoolchildren get to school safely. Although it was not very easy to change the construction schedule and backfill approximately 2,000 m3 of the processed material, we absolutely wanted to clear the path again in time for when school started. We are making good progress on the site’s remediation and might begin the development work in 2022,” says David Christmann, Managing Director of Isaria. “I also think that it is time for the people of Dachau to get a part of their city back, given that the paper mill closed in 2007. However, for that to happen, there needs to be a legally valid land-use plan. The City of Dachau is working on this at full speed.”
In the future, the property is planned to be the site of the new Mühlbachviertel, which will connect Dachau’s old town with a thoroughfare through the heritage-listed buildings. The new district is intended to be a livable, vibrant, and diverse environment which will be built sustainably and offer space for housing and local recreation. There are even plans to bring the Mühlbach up to the surface from its previous underground course and rehabilitate it with spacious waterside walkways. “The new apartments are a major opportunity for Dachau due to the housing shortage, especially in metropolitan regions. With Deutsche Wohnen, we have a reliable partner with a long-term commitment to developing an integrated and sustainable neighborhood. Combined with innovative usage concepts for the heritage-listed buildings and a great deal of natural space in the direct surroundings, the Mühlbachviertel will be home to a unique mix,” says David Christmann.
“We hope that all children – and their parents too – have had a great start to the new school year, have lots of fun learning, and of course arrive at school safely,” adds David Christmann.
Artists Johannes Wirthmüller and Adrian Till, together with other graffiti artists, had left a defining mark on the site’s character in recent years. For this reason, Isaria’s Managing Director, David Christmann, wanted allow the two artists create a design for the Last Wall Standing. The artists were clear about their desire to take part: “This work was very important to us. Our art is marking a transformation. We make a connection between the past and the future, give places their own consciousness, and pay tribute to their history. On the Last Wall Standing, we portrayed the paper-making machinery artistically one last time and dedicated the painting to Sepp Baur and Friedrich Thoma, former workers at the mill who have been part of the team overseeing the demolition so far,” said Johannes Wirthmüller and Adrian Till. “We would like to thank Isaria and Deutsche Wohnen for making this possible. Now is the time to cast our gaze toward the opportunities that come from the project’s development,” the pair added.
David Christmann and Michael Gerstner, project manager and Isaria’s authorized officer, are looking forward to the task that they have been entrusted with: “We will be using a lot of instinct and know-how to develop a sustainable town district and turn a former industrial site into a living and appealing center that will enrich Dachau’s old town. Revegetated riverside footpaths, spacious parks, high-quality architecture with a meaningful connection to its surroundings, and refurbished, heritage-listed buildings that will enable a connection to the center and offer space for public life. Another major benefit of the project development is that the town of Dachau will have a long-term partner at its side in the form of Deutsche Wohnen. Deutsche Wohnen will continue to take responsibility for the site in the future and add the housing to its portfolio,” said David Christmann. “We owe our thanks to the artists as well as the project managers Andreas Hanke and Peer Manthe from Campus Ingenieure, who have overseen the demolition work so far in cooperation with the company Karl. They will be organizing the soil rehabilitation and revegetation of the Mühlbach area,” David Christmann added.
Over the next few weeks, there will be work on rehabilitating the soil beneath the demolished former fire station, which in recent years was used as a garage for construction machinery.
About Isaria München Projektentwicklungs GmbH and Deutsche Wohnen
Isaria specializes in the development of sustainable buildings and city districts in urban areas. From the time of acquisition through to the construction phase, all projects undergo sustainability analyses as a matter of routine. The goal when doing this is always to develop livable urban districts while conserving resources, for example on the MD paper mill site in Dachau, where up to 1,000 apartments are to be built in the coming years. Isaria is part of Quarterback Immobilien AG.
Deutsche Wohnen is one of the leading listed real-estate companies in Europe. The company’s operational focus is on managing and doing business with its portfolio of residential real estate in dynamic metropolitan areas and conurbations in Germany. Deutsche Wohnen sees itself as having a social responsibility and obligation to maintain livable and affordable housing in vibrant neighborhoods and to develop new housing of the same quality.
