immo!nvest – Die Plattform für Standorte und Immobilien

Tag: Zwischennutzung

  • City wants to acquire industrial building for archive and temporary uses

    City wants to acquire industrial building for archive and temporary uses

    The Biel Municipal Council is proposing to the City Council that it purchase the industrial property at Mattenstrasse 133. According to the announcement, the building is intended to serve as the new city archives from 2033 onwards. Prior to that, it will be used as a temporary gymnasium and library.

    The industrial property at Mattenstrasse 133 was built in 1959 for Maveg AG, a trading company for construction machinery. The building comprises three large halls and an administration building and is listed as worthy of preservation in the building inventory.

    From winter 2026/27, the large hall of the property is to replace the Collège des Platanes’ gymnastics facilities. Since 2024, these have only been usable to a limited extent due to structural problems. Until the gymnasiums are renovated, the city wants to create a temporary solution by simply expanding the hall.

    Later, during the planned complete renovation of the city library on Neumarktplatz starting in 2031, the property will serve as a temporary library location. There are hardly any suitable rental solutions available in the city centre for the library’s approximately 1,700 square metres of floor space.

    After the library moves out, the building will be used permanently as the city archives from 2033 onwards. The city has been looking for a new solution for this for years, as the current premises no longer meet legal requirements and the archive holdings are spread across several locations.

    The municipal council is applying to the city council for two loans totalling CHF 3.890 million for the purchase of the property and the temporary provision of the gymnasium. The city council will make its decision on 19 March.

  • Commercial use and solar energy: development of the Papieri site is progressing

    Commercial use and solar energy: development of the Papieri site is progressing

    Property developer HIAG is expanding the transitional use of the Papieri site in Biberist. By the end of the year, around 6,000 square metres of space in the western section will be prepared for commercial use, as HIAG project developer Dominik Ulrich explained at an event organised by the Standort Schweiz network. Padelta AG is one of the users of the additional space. The company plans to operate eight modern courts there for the sport of padel, the Mexican version of tennis. The leisure facilities will be complemented by the Jump Factory trampoline park. Speed-E GmbH moved into the site in February with its workshop and showroom for electric bikes.

    In the industrial eastern part of the site, HIAG Solar AG, a joint venture between HIAG and aventron, installed a solar power system with a capacity of 620 kilowatt peak on the roof of a new building due for completion at the end of 2023 in mid-April. The electricity generated there will be used on site by the start-up Librec, which intends to recycle lithium-ion batteries here on an industrial scale. The second photovoltaic system on the site is already being planned.

    The approximately 270,000 square metre site on the River Aare was used as a paper mill from 1862 to 2011. HIAG took over the site in 2012 and the 2015 master plan envisages mixed use with a residential component in the western part of the site and commercial/industrial use in the eastern part. The property developer is currently working on the partial zoning plan, which covers the entire perimeter of the site. Temporary uses already occupy around 30 per cent of the site. The major users include Sieber Transport and Vigier.