CentrO Oberhausen - Eltis

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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). 30-9-99 / 2
TRANSLAND in-depth case study CentrO Oberhausen 3 30-9-99 / 3 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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CentrO Oberhausen - Eltis

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