New building for Studium-Plus in Frankenberg: construction work can start soon
The new building for the dual study programme Studium-Plus at the Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen will be built on the site of the multi-storey car park in Frankenberg. The Europe-wide award procedure with a competition to take part is almost complete. The district council made the final decision at its meeting on 8 July so that the contract can be officially awarded. The aim is to start the construction work as soon as possible.
The town of Frankenberg will make the site on Uferstrasse available for the new building. This will be purchased by the investor. Construction is scheduled to take around two years, meaning that the building, which will provide space for around 200 students, is currently expected to be completed in late summer 2026. If everything goes as planned, university operations in the new building could then start in autumn 2026.
At the moment, the premises of the Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen are located at the Frankenberg site at the administrative centre of the district in the building of the former health department. As the number of students has grown continuously in recent years, the district has decided to create new, modern and needs-orientated premises. A four-storey building is to be constructed in which study and administrative operations will take place on two levels. The other floors will be available for free use by the operator of the building. Flats will be created here, which will be let privately by the investor.
In order to find an investor for the multi-million euro project, the district initiated a Europe-wide tendering process by means of a negotiated procedure with a preliminary competition and with the involvement of an auditor and a law firm. Details of the procedure - such as bidders or investment sums - cannot be disclosed at this stage in order not to jeopardise the award procedure.
However, one thing is certain: the construction project will be realised as a public-private cooperation project, or PPP model for short. PPP stands for "Public Private Partnership" and means that a private company will plan, construct, finance and operate the building. The district is renting the building to house the Frankenberg site of the Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen - for 25 years according to current plans. The new THM building is the second project that the district has financed in this way: The new building for the vocational schools in Kasseler Straße in Korbach was already built using this model.
District Administrator Jürgen van der Horst says: "The construction of the new university building is a very clear commitment to the THM location in Frankenberg." The campus in the Philipp Soldan town is to be further developed, new premises for modern teaching are to be created and thus made fit for the future. "The THM is and will remain an important factor for Waldeck-Frankenberg as a centre of education and business," the district administrator continues to position himself clearly. "We want to offer young people the best study conditions here locally." The needs-orientated and future-proof infrastructure plays a decisive role in this.