2023-11-09 15:09:03
Shortly before completion, the construction site at the Frank House in the heart of the old town is at a standstill once more. Builder David Bogner has to file for bankruptcy and is now withdrawing from the Stadtkrug.
The rumor mill in Hallein has been bubbling since the end of October: The Stadtkrug is closing! The Frank House construction project is dead! Today, the Stadtkrug landlords Vera and David Bogner, who bought the Frank House in 2020 and wanted to implement a new gastronomic concept there, confirmed this to the “Tennengauer Nachrichten”: In the summer, the Sparkasse had the funds for the project, which was completely financed by external sources provided, equity capital of 600,000 euros was required so that the project might be continued, “and of course we don’t have that,” says Vera Bogner in the TN interview.
Their attempt to have the project continued by new investors was also rejected: “On October 20th we had the last appointment with the bank, where they once once more insisted on 600,000 euros of equity in some form. It was clear to us then that it’s over.” At the end of October, the bank finally called the loan due.
The Stadtkrug had been closed since mid-September because the two had hoped for a solution until the end and wanted to prepare to move the restaurant business to the new premises – because they wanted to open there at the end of November. Vera Bogner finds it incomprehensible that the bank didn’t at least enable the construction to be completed: “If they had said last year that we needed 600,000 euros in equity when our construction company went bankrupt, then David would have said back then that that wasn’t possible, that we had it we are not.”
Even this spring, when the project was resumed under the construction management of the Hallein architect David Huber, it was emphasized to the bank that they might not meet the need for more money: “The bank then said, we have to finish building it anyway, and The craftsmen were then commissioned.” Stopping now that the renovation is 80 percent complete is the “absolute worst case for everyone,” says Bogner: “We feel extremely sorry for the companies that still have outstanding invoices and are now losing their money, who can Nothing for it. We definitely didn’t want that.”
Claims of more than four million euros
David Bogner, sole shareholder of both the Stadtkrug and the new restaurant “Dave”, which was planned in the Frank House, is now facing personal bankruptcy at the age of 39 – the bank’s claims amount to around four million euros, plus a loan of 74,000 Euros at the Stadtkrug and the outstanding invoices from the craftsmen, says Vera Bogner.
The city pitcher, which they took over in 2017, is history for the two of them: “That’s just not possible anymore,” says Bogner. “Imagine that the house opposite, which was your passion project, is being foreclosed on, and in the meantime you have to run for your life once more in the Stadtkrug guest garden, which is what we’ve basically done for years. It’s simply time to go.”
“You can’t have as much bad luck as you did with this project.”
Christian Halwa from Salzburger Sparkasse explains that nothing is allowed to be said regarding the exact details of the case due to banking secrecy: “I can definitely say that it is extremely unfortunate if something like this cannot be realized, it is a blow for the entire city . We would have liked to have gone to the end. We wouldn’t have started it in the first place if we hadn’t believed in it. It’s a shame that it didn’t work out the way everyone had planned and calculated. Such bad luck with this project you normally can’t have anything.”
The project in the house, which has been described as an “eyesore” in the old town due to its years of disrepair in a prominent location, was not a good star from the start: following the purchase in autumn 2019, the corona pandemic delayed the construction negotiations for months. Then there were difficulties with a co-owner of the remaining apartments in the house, so that the Bogners ultimately had to buy them too. The skyrocketing construction costs of the last few years naturally hit them hard, there were also lengthy negotiations with the townscape protection commission, and in autumn 2022, following the work was finally making good progress, the general contractor went bankrupt. “Perhaps we should have smoked out the house before renovating it or brought in a shaman,” says Vera Bogner in the TN interview with a touch of gallows humor.
But she can vigorously contradict at least one rumor: the couple are neither separated nor divorced. If you don’t see David by your side at the moment, it’s because he’s in the hospital with a comminuted fracture in his upper arm following an accident.
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