On Tuesday night the municipality of the Copenhagen suburb of Rødovre approved a plan for the huge billion kroner construction project Irmabyen.
The construction of Irmabyen (Irma City) – named after the large abandoned building with the Irma sign on top of it that will be at the centre of the project – will commence this summer and people will be able to move in from early 2016.
”We'll start demolishing and building in August, when the local plan hearing and the complaints deadline has passed,” Anette Krarup, the development director at ELF Development. ”The first residents can move in during the beginning of 2016.”
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Population increase
The project – which will cost upwards of 3 billion kroner – aims to transform and renovate the Irma building and surrounding buildings into a modern urban residential area.
ELF will initially build about 250 homes this summer: 36 town houses, 120 apartments for rent and four tower blocks that include 90 apartments for sale.
Rødovre Municipality agreed yesterday to demolish a number of office, warehouse and factory buildings to make way for the construction of about 1,000 houses, which are expected to be able to house 3-4,000 residents – a 10 percent increase on Rødovre's current population.
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Irma legacy intact
Irma City is located in the southwest corner of Rødovre on the edge of the industrial area by Valhøjs Alle, around eight kilometres from Rådhuspladsen city square in Copenhagen.
ELF expects a construction and development period of 5-7 years and will use half of the available plots, hoping that other investors, such as pension companies, will develop the rest.
The 136,300 sqm area will keep the historic Irma building, which was once the place of employment for 700 Irma employees. Today, many of those workers have moved to Albertslund where Irma's owner Coop is headquartered.
