Bad Vilbel: Building Permit for Indoor Sports Swimming Pool Submitted

(eap) The project of a large-scale thermal spa, which is to be realized by Thermengruppe Josef Wund in strategic partnership with the internationally operating Therme Group in the German city of Bad Vilbel (Hesse), has undergone several stages in its approval process since its initialization a few years ago (the major project was presented in detail in EAP 6/2021). An initial building application for the project – which is planned to include a health and wellness area with an extensive sauna landscape, a family water park with slides, as well as an adjacent indoor sports swimming pool for local clubs and school sports – was already submitted in 2021 (cf. EAP News, 18 Jan 2021). In the following years, however, the original plans were modified several times, causing the project coming to a halt. In 2024, all required documents for the building permit were finally submitted in full to the competent authority. Since then, however, there has been no progress regarding a potential construction start. According to current media reports, the total investment volume is now estimated at 400 million euros – which would correspond to a doubling of the project’s originally projected costs.

In order to at least significantly advance the construction of the new municipal indoor sports swimming pool – the “old” indoor pool dating from the 1970s was demolished in 2019, leaving Bad Vilbel with only an outdoor pool facility – the respective building application was recently decoupled from the rest of the thermal spa project and submitted separately to the building authority at the end of September. This was announced by Thermengruppe Josef Wund earlier this week. The company stated that it aims to ensure that the building permit for the municipal pool could be granted by the end of January 2026. Accordingly, the opening of the facility could be expected between late 2027 and spring 2028 at the earliest.

As Klaus Minkel, Managing Director of Stadtwerke Bad Vilbel, told Hessenschau, the hope is to obtain approval for the remaining thermal complex by spring 2026 as well. In that case, construction would begin promptly, so that the entire thermal spa could likely be completed by late 2028 or early 2029. ■