The new city was named "City of the Chemistry Workers." A number of apartment blocks in the northern city area were reserved for Soviet troops and their families. After their return to the Soviet Union in the 1990s, these blocks stood empty. As major infrastructure facilities were completed late or never - for example, hotels or department stores were not built - Halle-Neustadt remained hardly more than a bedroom community for the shift workers in the chemical plants and their families. The development of the city remained "unsatisfactory" because a central tram line was not built along the highway, officially due to lack of electrical power capacity. Buses and the train therefore bore the brunt of public transport. In the city center there was a tunnel station which provided a direct commuter link to the Merseburg chemical combines Buna and Leuna Schkopau. An existing tram line from the center of Halle (Saale) only reached the VIII residential complex on the eastern edge, providing only a fraction of the city with service. In 1983 the last new cinema of the GDR was opened (in 2000 it was demolished to make way for a new shopping center with a multiplex cinema). It remained one of the few cultural amenities. More sophisticated shopping and culture could be found in the old city of Halle (Saale). Recreational opportunities included the adjacent mixed forest heath Dölauer with its Heidesee and "channel" (remnants of the unfinished Elster-Saale-channel). Unlike later "Plattenbau" settlements of the GDR, Halle-Neustadt was generously decorated with artistic details in the construction and especially in residential complex I. There is also lush greenery. Its architectural highlight is a 380-metre long, 11 story residential block called the "Block 10," the longest apartment building ever built in the GDR. To ensure that this did not create an obstacle to free movement, this building had three passages for pedestrians. In this block lived up to 2,500 people, more than Wörlitz at this time with which it is often compared. A portion of this block was used as a nursing home. The other eight residential complexes were later built much tighter, so there was that much less space for green areas. This was largely due to the housing programme of the GDR. The need for housing was great. As each of the five building complexes had a planned centre with a department store, health clinic, restaurants, schools, kindergartens