All tenants must vacate within 2 years

The owners of the Alpenblick buildings numbers 3 and 5 in Cham plan to begin a comprehensive renovation in two years – tenants in more than 100 apartments are affected.
 

"Simple maintenance is no longer sufficient –a comprehensive renovation is absolutely necessary." Anyone who reads this knows what that usually means: they will have to move out of their home.

This is what has recently happened in the two largest buildings in the Cham Alpenblick development. All the tenants of Alpenblick buildings numbers 3 and 5 – a total of 103 apartments – must move out within two years. The Zuger Zeitung newspaper has received a letter dated last Wednesday that reached many of these households. It serves as advance notice of the termination notice, which the residents will receive at the end of September.

The reason given for the eviction notice is: "A careful condition analysis and detailed investigations have revealed an urgent need for renovation." This work can only be carried out after the buildings have been completely vacated. "Unfortunately, renovation while the building is occupied is not possible," writes the "Alpenblick Renovation Project Team (Projektteam Sanierung Alpenblick)."

The owners are Revixa AG, founded in Cham in 1974 and based in Lucerne since 2020, the property manager Primus Real AG in Weggis, and the Zug-based Röösli Architekten AG and Creafactory AG. The latter is responsible for external communications and for conveying the unpleasant message to the tenants.

The residents had already been informed in May that the owner was reviewing the need for a renovation. This is probably related to the ruling of the Administrative Court (Verwaltungsgericht) that was published last March: The Alpenblick buildings, which are listed as historical monuments, must be preserved externally – but may be completely renovated internally.

"In the worst structural condition"
The development, which was built in the 1960s, was the first high-rise housing project in the canton of Zug, and comprised a total of 261 apartments. Some of the ten buildings have already been renovated since the early 2000s, according to the Cham local encyclopaedia chamapedia.ch, with reference to specialist literature.

The two buildings to be vacated, houses 3 and 5, which were built in 1969 and 1968 respectively, are among the younger of the ten buildings. They were built "with a view to cost-conscious construction" and are now "in the worst structural condition within the entire development," write the responsible authorities.

The Alpenblick buildings 3 (left) and 5 (next to it) are to be renovated        Photo: Stefan Kaiser
The development in the summer of 1981
The two buildings now scheduled for renovation are still missing from this photo from 1966
Photos: Image Archive ETH Zurich Library
 

The aim is not to carry out a "luxury renovation," but rather to address the "urgent need for action," particularly in the areas of fire protection, earthquake safety, and building services engineering. For example, the steel girder framework needs to be encased due to its inadequate fire resistance, and the underground parking garage no longer meets fire safety requirements. Other issues that have been mentioned refer to the dated standard of the buildings compared to current standards. Rooms of nine square metres, for example, are no longer up-to-date.

The goal of the renovation is to ensure that the apartments in the eleven- and twelve-story buildings can continue to be used for at least another 40 years. They are also to become "barrier-free" – meaning that they are also to be designed for senior living and wheelchair users, "as far as this is technically feasible."

How high will the new rents be?
Those responsible for the project are praising themselves for the "deliberately generous lead time" that they have chosen to provide information to tenants. They now have two years to find a new apartment – or to apply for the renovated apartments at Alpenblick 3 or 5. The current residents will have priority over other interested parties, and can learn more about the planned properties over two information afternoons.

The most pressing question probably concerns the level of future rents. It's obvious that these will increase noticeably as a result of the changes – but by how much exactly? The information letter to the tenants doesn't provide any specific figures. It simply states: "Future rents will be in the mid-price range." The question is, by what scale.