Revitalization of inner city areas

City centers face major challenge

Trade associations are currently lamenting the demise of retailers in city centers, caused by the coronavirus pandemic. And it is true that more people have been shopping online rather than in brick-and-mortar stores during this time. However, the pandemic has merely accelerated this shift toward digital shopping. The problems in city centers were already apparent before the pandemic, for example:

• Investment companies that are only interested in prime locations, buy a lot and want to extract maximum profit from their rents, accepting vacant properties
• Due to many vacant properties: loss of attractiveness in city centers and a backlog of modernization
• City centers with less charm attract fewer tourists and shoppers >>> these processes lead to a downward spiral
• More and more, and above all, affluent shoppers are less interested in mass offerings from standard stores in city centers
• Regular city center shoppers are not very tech-savvy and tend to belong to an older target group on average

Vacancies and lack of further development – what can still become of city centers?

Our local example: In Hanover, we are currently seeing large retail spaces in the city center being abandoned because they are no longer attractive to shoppers. As residents of Hanover, we fear what will follow: vacancies and a lack of further development of these spaces.

On the one hand, this leads to a loss of attractiveness for the city center and, on the other hand, to a loss of significance for the central city center as a public space.

Currently, as citizens, we are forced to watch as entire streets in the city center are transformed from prime locations into 1-euro shop areas. As residents and businesses in Hanover, we are interested in an attractive city and city center! We believe that only a vibrant city and city center that meets the diverse needs of its residents can remain attractive to its residents, businesses, and jobs in the long term in competition with other cities.