Swank building on the Mahü

Benko’s million-dollar grave: the incredible value

Shortly before Christmas, construction on Mariahilfer Strasse was halted! Since then, the block has disfigured the shopping street.(Bild: Wolfgang Spitzbart .)

Windowless, fenced in, deserted - the building block on Vienna's Mariahilfer Strasse will continue to disfigure the city for a long time to come. Krone+ knows the secret, multi-million euro value of the property, which is also of burning interest to the building police.

Two days before Christmas, thousands and thousands of Christmas children run up and down Mariahilfer Strasse as the last construction worker puts down his hammer. "The department store planned by René Benko's real estate and retail group Signa is intended to revitalize the traditional shopping mile and noticeably increase the local shopping frequency," was the message from Signa itself in August 2021. And then shortly before Christmas Eve the previous year: Signa bankruptcy, billions in losses, construction halted - the department store block became a ghost house from one second to the next. That was 63 days ago.