Image: Apa/Barbara Gindl
As the “Salzburger Nachrichten” reported, a new office building is to be built on the large parking lot between the Europark in Salzburg, the Taxham S-Bahn station and the Bolaring settlement. The existing corporate headquarters in Taxham on the other side of the shopping center is apparently bursting at the seams. That’s why Spar wants to move more than 1,000 employees from the headquarters itself, but also from the IT subsidiary ICS, the shopping center subsidiary SES and the sports retail subsidiary Hervis to the second location – it is called “Europa Campus”. Previously, the employees were housed in rented offices in the city of Salzburg and the surrounding area.
The Spar Group’s concept envisages a gross floor area of 25,000 square meters. The new building could reach a height of up to 55 meters. A new open space with 3,000 to 4,000 square meters including green areas, playgrounds and leisure activities is also planned.
“We will definitely not apply for a shopping center permit,” emphasized Spar board member Marcus Wild to “SN”. It’s not about an additional expansion of the Europark, but about office space. Now, as a first step, it is the city’s design advisory board’s turn, which determines the urban development framework. These then have to be decided in the city senate and the local council. If Spar has its way, the results of the architectural competition should be available in the fall. The aim is apparently to complete the construction by the beginning of 2027.
40 million euros investment
Europark, which opened in 1997 and was expanded once in 2005, with its around 130 shops, originally requested an expansion of 14,000 square meters. However, the country reduced the area to 8,500 square meters. The Spar subsidiary SES wants to invest around 40 million euros in the expansion and create around 300 new jobs.
The Greens in the city and the country had vehemently spoken out against the expansion in the past. They feared a loss of purchasing power far into the surrounding area and a weakening of small-scale trade. At Spar, however, they spoke of a necessary step in times of strong competition from online retail. The additional sales area is to be created on areas previously used as warehouses and the existing Mediamarkt parking lot.
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