Berlin: Mediaspree investors want to build despite referendum
Despite a referendum vote against construction on the banks of the Spree River, the investors in the Mediaspree project do not intend to abandon their plans. “We have a valid building permit since March, 2008. We are therefore going to start building in three to four weeks,” said Stefan Sihler, spokesperson for a syndicate founded on Friday consisting of the Anschutz Entertainment Group, the Kilian group, Stofanel Investment AG and state-owned Berliner Hafen- und Lagerhausgesellschaft (Behala), among others. Sihler dismissed the Mediaspree opponents with the argument that the referendum came much too late. “At the referendum, not even 0.9% of the population of Berlin voted against a project that concerns the whole city. And now the will of this minority is simply to be implemented? That makes no sense at all,” said Sihler to the daily newspaper B.Z. Sihler is the business manager for Labels Berlin, a project developer that plans to build a five-story building with 7,000 sqm of usable space for 12 fashion firms on a lot measuring some 5,000 sqm.