Investigation Uncovered: potential illegality in real estate transactions at Mainz port
In the heart of Mainz, Germany, a storm of controversy is brewing over the sale of the Mainz Customs Harbor. The sale, which occurred under questionable circumstances, has led to a criminal complaint being filed by the Free Voters' Association Mainz.
The Customs Harbor Mainz GmbH, a joint venture between Mainz City Utilities and CA Immo, was established for marketing purposes. However, an unusual distribution of shares has raised eyebrows. CA Immo, a private real estate company, holds 50.1% of the shares, while Mainz City Utilities, a public entity, owns only 49.9%.
Almost 30 building plots, spanning a gross building area of 22 hectares, are being marketed by the Customs Harbor Mainz GmbH. The estimated profits from these sales are at least 300 million euros.
The complaint accuses the city works and the former city leadership of deliberately bypassing approval requirements for public companies, aiming to insulate themselves from control bodies and the public, and to bypass tendering obligations.
The suspects named in the complaint are Günter Beck, a former and current city works board member from the Greens, and Michael Ebling, the Interior Minister from the SPD.
The sale of the Marina within the Customs Harbor occurred far below market value, without any bidding process. The Marina was sold for 86,000 euros, with estimates suggesting it was worth between 6 to 11 million euros.
New explosive documents regarding the sale of the Marina have surfaced, yet the City of Mainz refuses to answer questions about them.
The Free Voters claim that the Mainz City Utilities have control over the business of the Customs Harbor Mainz GmbH, making the transactions subject to the approval and control obligations of public bodies. They dispute the argument that the Customs Harbor Mainz GmbH is a private enterprise, asserting that the Mainz City Utilities have both economic, strategic, and actual control over it.
The Mainz City Utilities have had actual control over both Customs Harbor companies and thus over the development and sales in the Mainz Customs Harbor from the beginning. The business activities in the Mainz Customs Harbor are considered business of a public enterprise and are thus subject to the same obligations.
The Mainz Customs Harbor was officially decommissioned as an industrial harbor in 2013 and rezoned into a general residential area or mixed-use area in 2014. The Stadtwerke Mainz originally owned the Zollhafen area and founded the Zollhafen Mainz GmbH for its marketing, with participation from the private real estate company CA Immo Deutschland GmbH.
The obligation to tender and the requirement of economic efficiency apply to land sales in the Mainz Zollhafen, but these were neither awarded through public tenders nor approved by the Mainz city council.
This ongoing controversy has sparked calls for clarification in the Mainz city council. The Free Voters have posed questions about who exactly has the management of the Mainz Zollhafen, what role the Mainz Stadtwerke play in this, whether supervisory boards and city council are aware of the consortium agreement, and who checked and decided at the time that public tenders could be waived in the sales process.
As the investigation continues, the citizens of Mainz await answers to these pressing questions and a resolution to this complex issue.
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