Federal Environment Agency

Is Gewessler still pushing through the new location?

Environment Minister Leonore Gewessler

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/APA / Roland Schlager)

An interesting story is currently doing the rounds in the real estate scene: Apparently, Environment Minister Leonore Gewessler (Greens) wants to cement in the new location for the Federal Environment Agency in the final phase of her term of office.

The institution, which is wholly owned by the Republic of Austria, is to move to Erdberger Lände 40 - 48 in Vienna. The 600 employees of the Federal Environment Agency are due to move into the new office building at the beginning of 2026. The Federal Environment Agency's staff are currently spread across four locations in Vienna.

Once upon a time in Klosterneuburg ...
 In recent years, the search for a new home, which in addition to offices must also have laboratories on a total of almost 13,000 square meters, has developed into an almost never-ending story.

Back in 2017, Environment Minister Andrä Rupprechter (ÖVP) signed an agreement in principle for a new building on a former barracks site in Klosterneuburg with Johanna Mikl Leitner, Governor of Lower Austria, and the mayor of Klosterneuburg at the time. However, after protests from the workforce and several changes of government, the project was put on the back burner. Gewessler had originally announced a decision on how to proceed "in the course of 2020".

It was not until the end of 2023 that the Ministry of the Environment launched a structured bidding process for a Federal Environment Agency headquarters in Vienna, which provided for a concrete timetable: Contract conclusion in the third quarter of 2024, relocation in the first quarter of 2026. Again, there were delays because one of the 20 bidders, who had not made it to the final of the two best bidders, initiated review proceedings at the Federal Administrative Court.

Application as a "work-life building"
 The die is now likely to be cast for Erdberger Lände in Vienna's Landstrasse district. The German Art-Invest Real Estate group is revitalizing an office building there, built in 1984, which was last occupied by ÖBB. The ENNA project is being promoted as a so-called "work-life building".

Art-Invest also includes a fund for investors. One of the group's shareholders is the German construction tycoon Kurt Zech (Zech Group), who said of the failed Austrian real estate speculator René Benko shortly before the Signa conglomerate crashed that "what he has built up there is truly admirable".

For the time being, Leonore Gewessler's ministry was only able to provide the following statement: "The process of finding a new location for the Federal Environment Agency is in its final phase. As soon as it is completed, we will inform you of the results."