Originally Posted by agoodgrouping

O/S, a RFI as you always seem to have the best info on JHQ/Elmpt.

Have you any idea what will happen to all the MQs when the camp closes next year ? Does the Stadt intend bulldozing them or selling them off ? I am interested in case they are likely to come on the market, I suspect many others are also looking to settle in that area of Germany too. It is a decent distance from UK and my out-laws in Aachen.

I have spoken to the Big House and they seem to be in the dark about who the link is on the German side - with one year to go you might think some sort of plan would be in place by now but I can't find 'the man in the know' - is it you or do you know him/her ?

Maybe they will all become deserted and overgrown like those Laarbruch and left to rot, it would be a terrible waste.

Getting left like Larabruch, before eventually getting part of a new rail line between germany and holland built on it.

Originally Posted by agoodgrouping

O/S, a RFI as you always seem to have the best info on JHQ/Elmpt.

Have you any idea what will happen to all the MQs when the camp closes next year ? Does the Stadt intend bulldozing them or selling them off ? I am interested in case they are likely to come on the market, I suspect many others are also looking to settle in that area of Germany too. It is a decent distance from UK and my out-laws in Aachen.

I have spoken to the Big House and they seem to be in the dark about who the link is on the German side - with one year to go you might think some sort of plan would be in place by now but I can't find 'the man in the know' - is it you or do you know him/her ?

Maybe they will all become deserted and overgrown like those Laarbruch and left to rot, it would be a terrible waste.

Don't know who you have spoken with, but the reality is that right now no-one is sure. There are of course a reducing number of options since its' future as a NATO HQ has been canned and the need for the housing stock is not significantly high enopugh to justify the potential cost of redevelopment to a commercial investor. The obvious dilemma is that left without any definite plan it is likely to either become used piecemeal and/or become a natural site for the less desirable elements. It is too big, too uncontrollable and mal-located (from industrial workplaces) to become any sort of immigration / refugee facility and this is not what the Stadt or the Länder want anyway.

Favourite might well be to demolish the majority of the site, retain The Big House, new buildings, worthwhile service and road infrastructure and create a new industrial park with whats left.

Added: Of course the next big move will be that on 01 Apr (who chose that day) of the ESG to Belgium. Leaving HQ BFG behind to ..............dwindle!!

Originally Posted by Outstanding

Don't know who you have spoken with, but the reality is that right now no-one is sure. There are of course a reducing number of options since its' future as a NATO HQ has been canned and the need for the housing stock is not significantly high enopugh to justify the potential cost of redevelopment to a commercial investor. The obvious dilemma is that left without any definite plan it is likely to either become used piecemeal and/or become a natural site for the less desirable elements. It is too big, too uncontrollable and mal-located (from industrial workplaces) to become any sort of immigration / refugee facility and this is not what the Stadt or the Länder want anyway.

Favourite might well be to demolish the majority of the site, retain The Big House, new buildings, worthwhile service and road infrastructure and create a new industrial park with whats left.

Added: Of course the next big move will be that on 01 Apr (who chose that day) of the ESG to Belgium. Leaving HQ BFG behind to ..............dwindle!!

'no-one is sure' that's my point, I carry out my research in the same manner as most, contacts and earwigging in the Churchill Mess
- I have found them far more informative than anything I can find published.

Seems that I would be better concentrating on the German side as they will make the big decisions, they seem uncertain too though. I was back
in Oz a month or so ago and the old place doesn't seem too bad though, we made a big play on what our withdrawal would do to the economy
but it still seems healthy to me - old squaddie beer bars, fast food joints and taxi drivers look to have had the worst of it.

I cant see any future for a light industrial works in JHQ, MG and Krefeld both appear to be struggling on what little I have seen compared to
other ex-BFG locations. The idea of a railway sounds plausible, a huge carpark with a commuter line into Duss would be a winner I'm sure.
Really impressed by the new autobahn past Elmpt too, fast passage all the way until endless red lights in clog-land and MacGlen.

The old COMARRC house is vacant and available - wonder what that would fetch ? Who would ever have guessed that the hundreds of
thousands spent every 3 years upgrading every aspect of that mansion to suit the incoming Frau COMARRC would be so swiftly wasted.

O/S - do we still pay a fortune for the Villa Spiritus in Koln too ? Now maintaining that is good value for the 3 days it is used every year........

Handed back to German Federal Authorities.

Villa Spiritus is definately des res. It is right next to the Rhein and 20 ish feet above it, the view from there is magnificent, the villa is 100+ years old, it should therefore be no problem for the Bundesamt für Immobilienaufgaben (or whatever it is called now) to get rid of it for a bob or two. Unlike JHQ/Rheindahlen which is some thing of a nobodys little bastard. As I shall be hanging on to the bitter end it will be interesting to see what happens.
My unit will move to Catterick Bks in Bielefeld, but I along with most of the staff will not move; I sense a running goat fuck in the making.

[QUOTE=Biscuits_AB;4147046]...and fall under the 'command' of that arsewipe of an SSO.[/QUOTE

Arsewipe has always been Jeffs middle name!

Originally Posted by Drlligaf

Villa Spiritus is definately des res. It is right next to the Rhein and 20 ish feet above it, the view from there is magnificent, the villa is 100+ years old, it should therefore be no problem for the Bundesamt für Immobilienaufgaben (or whatever it is called now) to get rid of it for a bob or two. Unlike JHQ/Rheindahlen which is some thing of a nobodys little bastard. As I shall be hanging on to the bitter end it will be interesting to see what happens.
My unit will move to Catterick Bks in Bielefeld, but I along with most of the staff will not move; I sense a running goat fuck in the making.

I would put in an opening bid of Euro 120k every house in the South West Extension JHQ.

Looks like the date for final closure may be slipping due to lack of available alternative places for current incumbents elsewhere?

Originally Posted by agoodgrouping

...old squaddie beer bars, fast food joints and taxi drivers look to have had the worst of it.

In real terms, these are the only people who will feel the pain, if at all. It's not like we put much into the economy outside of these areas anyway. We've closed Garrisons before and I'm yet to see any evidence of economic collapse as a result.

Originally Posted by Outstanding

Looks like the date for final closure may be slipping due to lack of available alternative places for current incumbents elsewhere?

Is that the meatiest rumour you can come up with? You just haven't got what it takes any more have you?