Caritas Salzburg, and the parish of Herrnau, begin the construction of their joint project this month. The new Caritas centre and a new parish building are being built on Friedensstraße.
In the parish building, the new parish kindergarten and ten subsidised apartments will be built. In addition to administration departments, the new Caritas headquarters will also include social counselling and a new Carla second-hand shop. The construction is scheduled to be completed in March 2019.
In the new Caritas headquarters, around 90 employees from the central and service areas of Caritas will work in an area of 2,200 m², spread over four floors. The parish building will be 1,050 m². The kindergarten, with an integrated toddler group, will provide child care for about 30 children and will have a large outdoor playground. On the second floor there will be six two-room, and four three-room apartments.
Since the year 2000, Caritas has grown from 200 employees to 700 employees. The central areas of Caritas are now spread over five locations in the city of Salzburg. The existing centre no longer meets the requirements of a modern office building. A conversion of the existing building is not affordable because of the lack of space and the immense construction costs in the old town area within which it is located.
A benefit of the new building is that the existing kindergarten from the Heilbrunnerstraße can be renewed and integrated directly next to the parish. Due to the high demand of the parents, a new toddler group will be opened as part of this reinvigoration. The kindergarten is an important part of the parish and an open house for different nationalities, ethnicities and religions.
The joint construction project was launched on 14 November 2017 with the laying of the foundation stone in the presence of numerous representatives from politics, business and the church.