CentrO Oberhausen - Eltis

CentrO Oberhausen
Urban Entertainment Centre and Public Transport
IRPUD/VPL - Jürgen Brunsing, Nadine Möller, Jürgen Wixforth
1 Context 2
1.1 Background 2
1.2 Objectives and Policies 2
2 Implementation 3
2.1 Planning Process 3
2.2 Financing 4
2.3 Urban Design Concept 4
2.4 Transport Concept 5
3 Assessment 6
4 Conclusions 7
5 References 8

TRANSLAND in-depth case study CentrO Oberhausen 2
1 Context
1.1 Background
The city of Oberhausen is an independent municipality in the federal state of Northrhine-
Westphalia in Germany. It is composed of the three historical townships Alt-Oberhausen,
Sterkrade and Osterfeld. Oberhausen has a population of about 223,000. Its economic situation
is characterised by high unemployment due to the progressive economic structural
change caused by the decline of the mining and steel industries in the Ruhr area.
The CentrO Oberhausen is a huge shopping mall and urban entertainment centre on the site of
a former steel plant in the Ruhr area. The 98-ha site is divided into different patterns of land
use: 41 ha are assigned to shopping and recreation facilities, 15 ha to commercial businesses
and to residential buildings with 200 residential units, 20 ha to transport and 10 ha to open
space. Only 12 ha remain in industrial use (Microsatt, 1992).
1.2 Objectives and Policies
When the first plans for the CentrO were announced, this large-scale investment was expected
to solve many of the economic problems of Oberhausen. It was anticipated that the centre
would create 10,000 jobs and attract 30 million annual visitors from a large market area with
a purchasing power of over 150 million Euro per year (Microsatt, 1992).
The motivation behind the decision to build the CentrO were therefore primarily economic.
The city was well aware that a large-scale development not connected to the traditional settlement
structure would be controversial, both from the point of view of the traditional city
centres of Oberhausen and the neighbouring cities and with respect to environmental objectives,
in particular with respect to sustainable transport. So the urban planners made some
effort to integrate the project into broader planning objectives, such as
- to spatially integrate the CentrO with the existing townships,
- to overcome the existing spatial barrier of the former steel plant in the city,
- to attract new types of businesses and services to Oberhausen, and
- to compensate for the predominantly car-oriented design of the centre by linking it to the
public transport system of the city (Stadt Oberhausen, 1994).
Transport issues ranked high in the debate about the CentrO. Figure 1 shows the modal split
in Oberhausen in 1995. It can be seen that public transport use in Oberhausen with 13% of all
trips is very low, whereas car traffic with 58% has a higher share than even in the traditionally
car-oriented Ruhr area (53%). However, already 84% of Oberhausen’s citizens regard traffic
noise as one of the major nuisance of their town. However, it is forecast that private transport
will increase by 17% until 2005. Much of this increase will be due to the CentrO because of
its car-orientated concept and the fact that already 65% of all movements are made for consumption
and recreation (Socialdata, 1999).
The response of the City Council to this conflict has been the objective to increase the percentage
of public transport to 30% until 2005 (Strotmann, 1997).
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Figure 1. Modal shares of Oberhausen in 1995 (Source: Socialdata, 1995)
2 Implementation
2.1 Planning Process
The CentrO is a joint-venture of the British firms Stadium Group and Peninsular & Oriental
Steam Navigation Company (P&O). Stadium was set up in 1982 as an real-estate investment
company. The focus lies in developing and regenerating brownfield sites. The company is
located in Hull, UK. Its flagship project is the Meadowhall shopping and leisure centre in
Sheffield with a retail area of 150,000 m² on a former steel plant site. Stadium has already cooperated
with P&O during the implementation of Meadowhall. P&O was founded in 1837 as
a shipping company and has today 75,000 employees in 40 countries. Besides shipping, the
company operates in real estates and dock plants. A well-known project of P&O is the Hanseatic
Trade Centre in the docks of Hamburg, Germany.
CentrO is under the overall control of Stadium, and P&O contributes with its world-wide experience
in financing, developing and managing retail parks and other commercial estates.
Before Stadium and P&O got in contact with the City of Oberhausen, no guiding principles
for the redevelopment of the site had been developed. An earlier attempt of Canadian investors
to use the site for a large shopping mall had been unsuccessful because of political opposition
by the state government.
In 1991 the planning department of the City of Oberhausen worked out a framework plan for
the development. Stadium signed a contract with the City of Oberhausen, in which the rights
and duties of both partners were regulated. The developers took responsibility for the implementation
of the framework plan, and the city convinced the Thyssen company, the owner of
the site, to sell the property to the Grundstücksentwicklungsgesellschaft Oberhausen, a property
development corporation set up and owned by the city (Stadt Oberhausen, 1994).

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Also in 1992 the Regional Development Plan was modified to get planning permission for the
development of the CentrO. This would not have been possible without the strong support of
the state government. The City of Oberhausen modified both its preparatory land-use plan and
the legally binding land-use plan for the project and issued the planning permission. In the
course of the modification of both plans, the city contacted the neighbouring cities and was
able to create a consensus for the project within the region. This seems surprising in the light
of the negative impacts the CentrO has had on the retail sales in these cities but can be explained
by the light pressure from the state government that stopped criticism.
In parallel with the above planning process, a transport study was commissioned and its results
were incorporated into the existing Traffic Development Plan of Oberhausen. The
amendments corrected the assumptions of the plan to take account of the likely effects of the
CentrO, added a scenario for sustainable transport, compact urban development and the improvement
of public transport, and proposed measures for the improvement of the pedestrian
and bicycle network, an increase in parking fees and restrictions for car traffic.
One major feature of the improvement of public transport was the conversion of a former
freight railway line into an exclusive right of way for buses and light rail leading from Oberhausen’s
main railway and bus stations via the CentrO to northern suburbs. In 1993 the construction
of the mall and the conversion of the freight line were started. The opening of the
CentrO and the start of operation on the new line both occurred in 1996 (Schmidt, 1995).
2.2 Financing
In general owners of brownfield sites in the Ruhr area are not particularly eager to sell their
former industrial sites because they have to clean the contaminated soil before the sale. To
overcome this resistance, the City of Oberhausen, in co-operation with the state of North-
Rhine Westphalia, in 1992 bought the site from Thyssen for about 10 million Euro without
prior decontamination. The contaminated soil was cleaned and infrastructure was created for
about 65 million Euro entirely from public funds (Gansäuer, 1997).
Significant public investments were also made for the transport infrastructure linking the
CentrO to the rest of Oberhausen and the Ruhr area. To provide good motorway access to the
mall, the nearest motorway exit and the access road leading to it were upgraded for 22 million
Euro. The 135 million Euro investment for the new public transport line were financed jointly
by the City of Oberhausen and the state of North-Rhine Westphalia. The elevated bus and
tram stop at the mall was paid for by the developer.
The total investment volume for the CentrO amounted to approximately 1,200 million Euro.
The federal state of North-Rhine Westphalia contributed approximately 300 million Euro in
subsidies, as the CentrO was seen as a flagship project for the revitalisation of the Ruhr area.
2.3 Urban Design Concept
The layout of the CentrO follows familiar principles of greenfield-site shopping mall development.
The main shopping mall with its 70,000 m² of retail space extends as the backbone of
the development across the whole site between major department stores as anchors. Between
the mall and the access road there are multi-level garages (Figure 2).
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Figure 2. Site plan of the CentrO
On the opposite side of the mall there is a row of mock-up old-town houses with a variety of
restaurants alongside an artificial canal. Beyond the canal there is an amusement park with
various attractions and more restaurants (Böhler, 1996).
The main entrance to the mall faces a plaza with a pool and the access to the new public
transport station. On the other side of the station there is a new auditorium for musical and
sports events. In the vicinity of the mall is a small office and business park with various old
and new buildings used by research-oriented enterprises. The housing north of the mall has
not yet been implemented.
2.4 Transport Concept
The transport concept of the CentrO is mainly car-oriented. The centre is strategically located
near three important motorways (A 42, A 516, A 2). Within a radius of 2,5 km there are
twelve motorway exits leading of the CentrO. As mentioned before, one of them, the exit
Osterfeld/Neue Mitte on the A42, and the access road leading to the CentrO were upgraded.

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Altogether the CentrO contains 10,500 free parking spaces. Originally a system with paid
parking was planned, but later dropped. No reasonable possibility to reach the CentrO without
using different modes of transport exists for pedestrians and cyclists.
Despite the general car-orientation of the CentrO, efforts were made to link the CentrO to the
public transport network of the city (Figure 3). A former freight railway line was converted to
an exclusive right of way for buses and light rail leading from Oberhausen’s main railway and
bus stations via the CentrO to northern suburbs. Modern low-floor buses and trams operated
on the new line first in 90-second intervals, but the frequency has now been reduced because
of sufficient lack of demand (Appel, 1991; Retzko & Topp, 1991; Strotmann, 1997).
3 Assessment
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Figure 3. The CentrO in the public transport network of Oberhausen
It is very doubtful whether CentrO is a model to follow, even though it might be preferable to
peripheral greenfield shopping centres.
Three years after its opening, the CentrO has proved to be a dangerous competition to retail
and services in the city centre of Oberhausen and the other two townships of Oberhausen. A
study revealed that 58% of all residents of Oberhausen prefer to shop in the CentrO instead in
the traditional centres. Losses of customers to the CentrO are even observed in the neighbouring
cities of Essen, Mülheim and Bottrop (Wachowiak and Quack, 1999).

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However, most residents of Oberhausen regard the CentrO as an improvement in the shopping
opportunities of their city. 78% evaluate the project as good for the city despite its negative
impacts such as growth of traffic and decline of the city centre. Due to the CentrO shopping
facilities rank fourth on the list of positive features of Oberhausen (Socialdata, 1995):
(1) quality of life (74%)
(2) leisure facilities (69%)
(3) arts, culture and entertainment (66%)
(4) shopping facilities (63%)
An evaluation of the CentrO from a transport point of view has also two sides. On the one
hand, the CentrO is clearly car-oriented and by its vast amount of free parking, together with
its good motorway connection, stimulates more long-distance shopping trips by car. On the
other hand, the CentrO is well connected to the public transport network of the city and has an
innovative new public transport line with modern low-floor vehicles and frequent service to
the main railway and bus stations.
4 Conclusions
The CentrO is a huge shopping mall and entertainment centre on a former steel mill site in the
Ruhr area. The development is isolated without spatial integration into the existing settlements
structure. The CentrO draws large numbers of shoppers and visitors from far away at
the expense of neighbouring city centres. The concept for the transport system is mainly caroriented.
However, a former freight railway line was converted to an exclusive right of way
for buses and light rail with a new public transport station at the entrance to the mall. There is
no reasonable possibility to reach the CentrO for pedestrians and cyclists without using another
mode.
Because of its central location in the Ruhr area and its good connection with the regional
public transport system, the CentrO development may be less detrimental from an ecological
point of view than similar developments on peripheral greenfield sites, which entirely depend
on car access. However, the huge attractiveness of the shopping mall has been very negative
for the economic viability of nearby city centres and certainly is creating more and longer
shopping and recreation trips. A better spatial integration of the CentrO into the settlement
structure might have been possible if residential development would have been encouraged
along the new public transport line.
It is very doubtful whether the CentrO is a model to follow, even though it might be preferable
to peripheral greenfield shopping centres. However, its example seems to be transferable,
as currently several big shopping and urban entertainment centres are being planned it Germany
and other European countries, mainly at or above railway stations of big cities.
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5 References
Appel H. P. (1991): Untersuchungen zum Verkehrsentwicklungsplan Oberhausen. Unpublished
report.
Böhler, S. (1996): Freizeitwandel am Beispiel Neue Mitte Oberhausen. Diploma Thesis.
Dortmund: Department of Spatial Planning, University of Dortmund.
Gansäuer, T. (1997): Großprojekte als Strategie der Stadtentwicklung. Diploma Thesis.
Dortmund: Department of Spatial Planning, University of Dortmund.
Micosatt, G.(1992): Neue Mitte Oberhausen. Bochum: Gesellschaft für interdisziplinäre Forschung
(G.I.F.).
Retzko & Topp (1991): Verkehrsuntersuchung Neue Mitte Oberhausen. Unpublished report.
Schmidt, W. (1995): Neue Mitte Oberhausen. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang Verlag
Socialdata (1995): Der neue ÖPNV in Oberhausen - Mobilität in Oberhausen. Band 1-3.
München: Socialdata.
Stadt Oberhausen (1992): Untersuchung zum Verkehrsentwicklungsplan Oberhausen –
Ergänzungsstudie. Oberhausen: Stadt Oberhausen.
Stadt Oberhausen (1994): Die Neue Mitte Oberhausen – Chance und Herausforderung. Oberhausen:
Stadt Oberhausen.
Strotmann, M. (1997): Mit dem ÖPNV zur Neuen Mitte. Diploma Thesis. Dortmund: Department
of Spatial Planning, University of Dortmund.
Wachowiak, H., Quack H.-D. (1999): Mehrheitlich in die "Neue Mitte". BAG Handelsmagazin
7-8, 18-20.
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