Offenbach: There is still a lot to do in implementing the master plan

• fromEast Tinç

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The city of Offenbach draws a positive interim balance. There is progress in living, but there are still major challenges to be faced in the settlement of businesses. But Corona is slowing down.

When the city of Offenbach launched the Master Plan 2030 five years ago, the mood was down, recalls Frank Achenbach. “That has changed”, says the managing director of the Offenbach Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IHK) and board member of the “Offenbach offensiv” association. Cool, edgy, sexy, unconventional are the new attributes that the city is now confidently bringing out to attract companies.

“There are a lot of things in the pipeline,” says Planning and Construction Department Head Paul Gerhard Weiß (FDP). The districts are changing, districts such as Bürgel and Bieber are growing, the north end is being densified. At the same time, the city has high hopes for the renovation of the Kaiserleis and the design park on the former Clariant site. “Investors know where they stand with us. In the next few years we will have to bring in the harvest much more ”, demands Weiß.

That will still be a long way for the city. For one thing, the coronavirus pandemic has put a lot on hold. The companies are considering how they want to position themselves. Do you still need that much office space or are you moving a lot to the home office? The Kaiserlei renovation will take until the end of the year and work is still being carried out on the parking regulations for the area. Without the possibility of not building more parking spaces for their employees, many companies are not interested. At the design park, where digital companies will eventually move, contaminated sites must first be removed, and there are no concrete negotiations there either because of Corona.

“We have to locate companies and continue to argue with the federal and state governments,” demands Mayor Felix Schwenke (SPD). Every new coalition must put a focus on business acquisition. “That is the core challenge for the city, and the master plan is the answer,” he says. Weiß also demands that the new coalition should also be a “master plan alliance”. Another FDP advance in the direction of the SPD to strive for a traffic light coalition with the Greens.

When it comes to the city center, Achenbach sees the greatest pound in the fact that “we already have ideas”. The town hall plaza in Frankfurter Straße and the redesign of the Marktplatz S-Bahn station would have helped the city. However, there is still a lot to be done, warned Achenbach, citing the redesign of the main train station as an example.

“This is not a process that only takes place in offices,” emphasized Schwenke. But one in which the citizens are permanently integrated. The city will distribute the interim balance sheet of the master plan to all Offenbach households.

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