Where planes once took off and landed, trucks will soon be driving back and forth: A logistics park is being built at the old airport in Giessen.

According to information from the owner, the operator VGP, which operates throughout Europe, the entire area of ​​around 241,000 square meters is rented.

The construction work has started.

After Otto-Versand had jumped off as a tenant, the contract with Zalando was signed last October.

In addition, the parcel and courier service UPS is moving in with a brand new business model.

Third in the group will probably be the logistics service provider Rhenus.

City Councilor Gerda Weigel-Greilich (Die Grünen) emphasizes the excellent connection to the 485 motorway.

"To get to the Gießen-Ursulum ramp, the trucks don't have to cross a residential area," she says.

UPS wants to concentrate on the healthcare sector at the old airport on Rödgener Straße.

The first location of this kind in Germany is about the transport of pharmaceuticals, laboratory diagnostics and medical equipment.

Operations are scheduled to start in December.

400 apartments at the old airport

One focus will be cold chain shipping with guaranteed temperatures between 8 and minus 80 degrees Celsius.

There is probably a connection with the Marburg production of the Biontech vaccine, which has to be stored and transported at at least minus 70 degrees.

On its homepage, UPS presents itself as a “trustworthy partner for Covid-19 vaccines”. The UPS parcel distribution station in the neighboring Ursulum industrial area will remain in place.

Weigel-Greilich is very satisfied with the development of the area in the east of Giessen.

After the conversion of the former US depot was tough in the first few years, things progressed rapidly from 2015 onwards.

80 hectares have been designated for nature conservation, 120 hectares for residential and commercial use.

This includes the 17-hectare area of ​​the Hesse initial reception center for asylum seekers.

Now there is only room for a small business.

400 apartments are to be built at the old airport.

Wohnbau Gießen is constructing a building with 16 units, the majority being Nassauische Heimstätte.

A large part of the apartments are rented "not at high prices", says Weigel-Greilich.

But that's just a drop in the ocean: The Central Hesse regional plan predicts a population growth for Giessen from 10,000 people to over 100,000 by 2035.

However, there are no larger areas for residential development.

“There would only remain forest and the Wieseckaue.

But we don't want to go there," asserts the head of the department responsible for urban development.

"Outstanding Monument of Modernity"

Giessen Airport was built in 1925.

The first scheduled flights went to Frankfurt, and after being integrated into the Lufthansa network, which emerged from the Southwest German Air Transport Company in 1926, also to Kassel.

In the first year of operation, the airport was served 149 days.

In 1931 there were 2252 starts on 129 days.

Due to low passenger numbers, operations were discontinued in 1933 except for the feeder flights to Frankfurt and then completely in 1936.

A year later, the Nazis converted the facility into a military airfield.

On May 1, 1939, Kampfgeschwader 55 “Greif” was stationed there.

After the Second World War, the US Army took over the area and set up the US depot there with the European headquarters of the "Army's own consumer goods supply chain".

The military part of the US depot was closed in 2007,

Some properties reverted to the city of Giessen.

The Federal Agency for Real Estate Tasks took over the exploitation of the fallow areas and sold them to the real estate project developer Revikon.

He developed the areas and sold them bit by bit.

The reception building of the old civil airport, which was built in the Bauhaus style and is a listed building, has been saving Revikon from decay since 2015 through gradual renovation.

The lettering "Flughafen Giessen" has been emblazoned on the facade again for a few days, true to the original.

The work should be completed later this year.

The building is considered an "outstanding monument of modernity".