Business Lolland-Falster and DI hosted a construction and civil engineering conference in Nykøbing Falster on Wednesday. Going in, you might have expected the roof to blow off with the schedule filled with talks about upcoming projects in the Guldborgsund and Lolland municipalities, introduced by the mayors. This especially considering last year’s conference, where German real estate developer Peper & Söhne dropped a bombshell by announcing their plan to invest a quarter of a billion kroner in a logistics center in Maribo Business Park.
But the anticipated big news didn’t come. In fact, the excitement seems to have fizzled out a bit.
– The world economy has shifted since then, and things haven’t really kicked off, observed Mads Stærk, Development Director, right from the get-go.
Sold-out commercial plots and lots of plans
The truth is, not a single shovel has hit the ground for the much-heralded Hub 48 Maribo project since its announcement. And that’s pretty much the story across the board.
– We’ve sold out of commercial plots, and they’re all paid for, said Holger Schou Rasmussen, the mayor of Lolland, referring to the Stensø area in Nakskov. Here, European Energy plans to establish a large Power to X plant, Hveiti is looking to set up a wheat refinery, there’ll be biogas production, and plans for a recycling plastic processing plant are in the works. And for now, we wait.
Scandal-hit school to be completed by 2025
Simon Lund, the mayoral colleague from Guldborgsund Municipality, didn’t bring any early Easter surprises to the conference either. However, he expressed hope that the scandal-hit Sundskolen school building project would be completed by the end of 2025. The project has now put out a total advisory contract for tender and the completion will be offered as separate trade contracts.
– Sundskolen… has taken its time, Simon Lund noted dryly.
Shortage of accommodation
Nevertheless, Mads Stærk from Business Lolland-Falster, along with the mayors, remained optimistic. There are plenty of tourism projects in the pipeline – including a new, mysterious hotel project on Lolland with 80 – 200 rooms that we’ll be “hearing more about soon”.
Tourists, particularly from Germany, can’t get enough of Lolland-Falster. And that’s bound to keep the construction and civil engineering sector busy.
– Lolland-Falster is in dire need of more and newer accommodations, said Mads Stærk, who also called for some reflection concerning the Fehmarn fever.
– We must remember, the Fehmarn project will come to an end at some point. And as for the activity it brings, much of it is temporary and doesn’t take root, noted the development director from Business Lolland-Falster.
