New urban district with original Leiner store planned in St. Pölten, Austria

The Leiner Haus in St. Pölten will continue to be one of the best addresses in the Lower Austrian regional capital. The currently out-dated buildings at Rathausplatz 7-10 are either undergoing an extensive renovation or will be replaced completely by new buildings. “This will provide fresh impulses for the further revitalisation of the city centre,” said Christoph Stadlhuber, SIGNA’s CEO. In concrete terms, the project development encompasses a site area of several thousand square metres in the city centre between the Rathausplatz via the Rossmarkt to the Julius-Raab-Promenade between Heitzlergasse and Heßstraße.

While the listed buildings along the Rathausplatz will be preserved, the plan is to demolish the buildings behind it. The sales area of the Leiner store, which currently amounts to 10,000 square meters, will be re-dimensioned. A completely new concept will be implemented. Until the re-opening of the original Leiner store, all employees will be offered continuous employment at kika or, if desired, in other store locations.

Condominiums, a hotel with conference centre and a parking garage are on the way

In the course of the project development, the construction of about 150 apartments is planned in addition to the adaptation of the furniture store. A hotel with about 150 rooms, a conference centre and an underground car park fill out the broad scope of the project development. “We believe both in the future of city centres and brick-and-mortar retail,” says Christoph Stadlhuber. He puts it in concrete terms: “We need to think of these spaces in a new context and to interlace different utilisations with regard to their content so that they can benefit from each other. We generally see ourselves as partners of large cities and want to play our part in making the centres of major Austrian cities more attractive.”

Different variations of the project development are currently being worked out. After the adaptation of the zoning and development plan as well as the official approvals, the construction could begin as early as 2021.