Eutin at a standstill: Empty department store endangers the city!

Eutin at a standstill: Empty department store endangers the city!

Eutin, the city of quiet shops! The former LMK department store, which has been a shadow of its former self for years, not only brought Eutin sad walls, but also a bitter loss of trade tax revenue. The shop windows are covered with posters and customer traffic is a thing of the past. Dissatisfaction with the no longer visible owner, Thomas Menke, is growing in the urban development committee. His only answer to the politicians' insistent requests? Silence! One proposal is floating through the air: the introduction of a punitive tax on vacant properties.

“Such a tax could avoid unjustified speculation,” explains Hans-Wilhelm Hagen, chairman of the Eutin business association. But it also has a strange message: “There is movement in Eutin, the owners are trying to attract tenants.” Meanwhile, the city remains timid in answers; A spokeswoman only said that they were in discussions with the owners. But the big standstill is coming, because Menke remains silent in the influential realm. And where is the answer to the question of how Eutin should deal with three large vacancies, including the abandoned Sky market and the corner building on Peterstrasse that has been renovated for months?

Already failed: nationwide push for vacancy tax

In the past, the idea of ​​a nationwide vacancy tax floated through Germany. Landau in Bavaria took the first step and wanted to introduce 2 percent of the property value per year as a tax - the proposal failed miserably. Instead, fines for unused apartments were decided. Where is the justice for consumers? Eutin's mayor Katrin Engeln and other local voices warn against an interference with the property rights of the owners. “No one can be forced,” she says. Thomas Buchholz also points out the need for cooperation between the city and owners, instead of draconian measures to combat vacancies.