By Gunnar Schupelius
Joe Chialo says goodbye to the French department store on Friedrichstrasse, even though it doesn’t want to close. That seems very unprofessional and disrespectful, says Gunnar Schupelius.
First it was a big plan, then an even bigger flop: last Monday, Senator for Culture Joe Chialo (CDU) proclaimed the Galeries Lafayette department store on Friedrichstrasse the new location for the “Berlin Central and State Library” (ZLB).
This is “a unique opportunity” and “a strong sign of departure,” Chialo explained in the House of Representatives. The library will be a “lighthouse of the cultural landscape” in the “previous Galeries Lafayette”.
There was general applause for this announcement in politics and in the media, the move of the bookshelves to Friedrichstrasse already seemed to be a foregone conclusion. Until BZ asked and found out that the French department store didn’t want to move out, but wanted to stay in Berlin.
“Galerie Lafayette is currently negotiating with owner Tishman Speyer to extend their lease, which expires at the end of 2024,” a department store spokesman told us. The Berlin-Brandenburg trade association also confirmed that negotiations on a continuation of the lease with Galeries Lafayette have not yet been completed.
The owner Tishman Speyer, in turn, said on Thursday evening that they were not interested in continuing a lease with Galeries Lafayette beyond 2024.
The last week ended with this confusing picture. The Senator for Culture had apparently declared its location as a library without consulting the managers of the department store. Had he arranged this with Tishman Speyer to give the library priority over the department store?
In any case, Joe Chialo caused threefold damage with his behavior:
First His hasty announcement was like a slap in the face to the 300 or so workers at Galeries Lafayette, who had to believe their jobs would be lost.
Secondly Chialo spoiled the prices because with such loudly announced and celebrated interest in the property, the landlord can now play poker in all directions much better than before.
Of course, the senator should only have gone public after the negotiations had been concluded. That’s how you do it. Anything else is just plain unprofessional.
Third With his clumsy words he said goodbye to a department store from Berlin, which has been one of the best-known addresses in the city since reunification. That was, if perhaps unintentionally, very unfriendly, insensitive and disrespectful.
The Galeries Lafayette are of great importance for the Friedrichstrasse as a shopping street, something that Chialo apparently neither knew nor forgot.
You can’t go wrong anymore. The government must do everything it can to keep businesses and jobs in the city. Chialo did the opposite.
He is a career changer in politics, a man without a party career and without experience in a political office. Such people are quite welcome. Joe Chialo should have his chance.
But then he should please develop a little more feeling for the great responsibility he now bears as a member of the government.