Long-established residents of Eschborn almost no longer believed that the Alte Mühle was really going to make any headway.
It has been empty for almost twenty years. The city acquired the listed property in 2007, and the project has stalled ever since.
Sometimes there was political disagreement, sometimes other projects took precedence.
Now, however, there is a building permit, orders for all trades and the draft for a conversion into a gastronomy with Hessian cuisine, which is to be operated by the Nieder Höchstädt caterer Robert Walch.
Mayor Adnan Shaikh (CDU) wished for an “identity-forming place where people can come together” at the groundbreaking ceremony on Friday.
Andrea Diener
Correspondent in the Main-Taunus district
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Most recently, Margarete Luce lived in the Alte Mühle until the old lady died of old age in 2003.
She belonged to the family of manufacturers who also built the Villa Luce in Eschborn, today a hostel for mentally handicapped people.
Since the woman's death, the mill building has stood empty and is now in poor condition.
The wallpaper is in tatters on the walls, cobwebs hang in door frames, dust collects on the floor as thick as a finger.
A wasps' nest hangs on the window on the first floor, which is also no longer inhabited.
The strip parquet on the ground floor and the wooden library with its built-in shelves refer to the 1960s - both of which are of high quality.
"It can stay," explained architect Kerstin Werner from the architectural office S+P in Bad Soden.
Werner has been supporting the Alte Mühle project since the city bought it, i.e. for 15 years.
Buildings are no longer completely gutted anyway, she says, one prefers to get reminiscences of the life phases of a building.
The monument protection is still researching the color design, the window openings are no longer the original ones anyway, namely much larger, and in the end a mixture of the baroque building fabric and some elements from the later epochs will probably emerge.
The city is currently anticipating a two-year construction period if there are no surprises, which can never be ruled out with old buildings.
In some places you will have to check the statics again, said architect Werner.
In any case, in the late summer of 2024 not only the mill with gatehouse should be renovated and the 20 parking spaces with charging stations for electric cars and bicycles will be waiting for guests.
The extension buildings should also be in place, also based on plans by Kerstin Werner.
Two simple extensions will unobtrusively connect the mill and gatehouse and provide space for events and celebrations.
Skylights will create a bright sense of space there.
There are garden views and space for a buffet, and the kitchen is close by.
That fits the history of the old building.
Because the Westerbach often did not have enough water to turn the mill wheel in summer, the Eschborn miller obtained a concession to distill corn schnapps and serve it to the local population.
And they made good use of this offer.
A church record from 1782 records that the women of Eschborn complained to the pastor about their husbands' bad habit of "drinking, raving and playing" in the mill, especially on Sundays.
Since in the future we will probably be dealing with more cultivated wines than with home-made schnapps, the connection to tradition is likely to be somewhat tamer.