Twelve-storey high-rise development of flats for private ownership planned

The Cham Group, formerly the Cham Paper Group, has announced it has plans to build a twelve-storey block of flats for private ownership on part of its former industrial site.

Application has been made to the authorities to build this high-rise development after a number of firms of architects sent in their deigns; the photograph shows a computer-generated image.

As Andreas Friederich, the CEO of the Cham Group, explained, this new building will be the most striking of the whole development, the ground floor given over to commercial use. The flats themselves, ranging in size between three-to-five rooms will benefit in from high ceilings in particular.

An adjacent former boiler house also forms part of the site. Indeed some of the former industrial buildings here are listed. The boilers themselves will be removed, but the existing two large chimneys will be kept. At present this building is empty, but with its high ceilings, too, it offers great potential. It is thought the ground floor could be used as a market hall with adjacent eateries, with perhaps sports or spa facilities making use of the upper floors. Then there are ideas for a hotel on the site, too.

It is hoped residents of this first stage will be able to move into their flats by 2022.

Once the whole project on this Papieri site, as it is known, is complete, in ten to fifteen years’ time, some 240 flats for private ownership and others for rent, in the affordable category, too, will be available, not to mention a 9,000 square metre area for commercial use. As Friederich further explained, the whole development will not only provide housing and commercial opportunities, it will liven up the area, too.

Furthermore, the whole development should be practically self-sufficient when it comes to energy, it having its own power station, courtesy of the River Lorze, with photovoltaic installations on roofs and geothermal probes underground to provide heating and cooling.