Improved image of Offenbach as an investment location
13.01.2020 – With the increased marketing of Offenbach's commercial sites, an intensive exchange with companies and new solution-oriented approaches and quality requirements for the administration, important steps were taken last year to strengthen Offenbach as a business location in the long term.
As Lord Mayor Dr Felix Schwenke emphasized at the presentation of the 2019 annual report of the Economic Development Agency, the common thread of his economic policy is to optimise administrative structures and to showcase and exploit the opportunities of Offenbach as a business location: "This guideline manifests itself in concrete concepts and in concrete places." Schwenke's goal remains to attract companies to Offenbach in order to improve the city's financial performance.
The realignment of business development under Lord Mayor Schwenke, which began last year, is aimed at increasing the service and customer orientation of the city administration and intensifying the marketing of Offenbach's large development areas. In his outlook for 2019 a year ago, Schwenke had already identified five key areas that he wanted to focus on with his business development department: working more closely with investors and Offenbach entrepreneurs, actively marketing the municipal areas in Kaiserlei, striving to acquire the Clariant site, developing the future concept for the city centre and strengthening marketing. "Today I can report that we have been able to achieve concrete success and progress in all of these key areas," says Schwenke.
Business development through customer and service orientation
In November 2019, the city council adopted the business location concept presented by Schwenke. The concept provides for five guarantees to the economy and twenty municipal measures that are intended to help speed up administrative work processes and find customer-oriented solutions for companies' special requirements. The concept also promises reliable political decisions, holistic thinking when solving problems and quick accessibility of the administration.
"Business development has always supported companies to the best of its ability," said Mayor Schwenke, explaining the approach he is pursuing with his business location concept. "Time and again, however, project developers and entrepreneurs come up against challenges in their projects that have to be dealt with by the building and environmental authorities, for example. That's why it was and is very important to me that all relevant authorities have been sitting down together every 14 days for a year now to find quick solutions to problems together with the developers and thus ultimately create a positive image of the administration based on service and customer orientation." This service attitude also noticeably supports the marketing of space by the business development department, added Schwenke, who himself has been very active in promoting targeted location marketing.
Success through Kaiserlei marketing
The marketing of the Kaiserlei office location once again met with great interest in 2019. Property sales by project developers and investors as well as 30 discussions with project developers about possible conversions or new builds on already developed areas show that demand in Kaiserlei increased significantly once again in 2019. "Our energetic and consistent marketing of the Kaiserlei over the past two years has brought a lot of movement to the market," Schwenke summarized. "We can now be confident that the previously completely undervalued business park will develop into a high-quality service park, which we expect will also have a positive impact on the city's revenue situation and labor market." The new construction project launched in 2018 for the AXA insurance group and the project by HELABA Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen, which is converting and expanding an administrative building, are attracting a great deal of attention from estate agents, investors and end users. Both projects will create significantly more jobs in Offenbach in 2020.
By focusing on marketing the Kaiserlei, the visibility of Offenbach as an investment location has increased significantly overall. The Lord Mayor received numerous invitations to present the economic development and investment opportunities in Offenbach at conferences and congresses. These presentations at high-ranking events now directly address decision-makers from the business world on an almost monthly basis. This large number of contacts by business development staff and the Lord Mayor has led to a further increase in inquiries about investment opportunities in Offenbach. At the same time, an image of Offenbach's investment and business friendliness has been created, which can and must now be built on further, according to Schwenke.
Economic strengthening through innovation campus
In the mayor's view, one of the most important successes in 2019 was the agreement with Clariant to acquire the former Allessa site. The city wants to create an innovation campus for companies from future-oriented industries on this largest vacant inner-city commercial site in Hesse. The economic development agency has also set itself the goal of attracting more business tax-paying companies and new jobs to the site. "Preparations for the marketing of this site will not yet play a prominent public role in the next two years," says Schwenke. "However, the purchase of the site is of the utmost importance for strengthening Offenbach as a business location. Economic development is secured for many years to come with the Innovation Campus. This is a historic success."
Establishment of 79 companies and 360 jobs
According to Jürgen Amberger, Head of the Office for Economic Development and Real Estate, the intensified location marketing through target group-oriented measures at trade fairs, events and in a large number of individual discussions has also had a positive impact: "In 2019, we recorded almost 200 inquiries from companies looking for a new location." Around two-thirds of all inquiries came from interested parties who were not or are not yet based in Offenbach. All in all, 79 companies with around 360 jobs were relocated to Offenbach in 2019. The largest relocation was recorded in the Heyne-Fabrik: The Frankfurt office of the international, independent advertising agency Kastner set up shop there. The halls of the Heyne-Fabrik in Nordend, directly on the Main, have been specially converted for the agency and are home to around 40 employees who look after the global business of Red Bull, Henkell & Co, Das Telefonbuch and STADA Corporate Communication, among others.
In addition, the Economic Development Agency helped nine Offenbach companies with around 300 employees to find and move into a new location in Offenbach. Finding suitable space for investors, developers or companies is an important element of location development and location marketing. "Good service also means that external parties communicate positively about the location and thus strengthen marketing," says Lord Mayor Schwenke. This is why, in addition to pure space brokerage, the Economic Development Agency also improved its support for inquiries in 2019. Anyone looking for a space will receive corresponding offers and will also receive comprehensive support with pre-selection, inspections, necessary permits, re-registration and the like. Overall, the trend of strong demand for smaller office units in particular continued in 2019.
Focal points in 2020
Among other things, the economic development department intends to use 2020 to further anchor and implement the business location concept. "We will evaluate and further refine the effectiveness of this concept with the involvement of our customers from the business community," announced Schwenke, knowing full well that implementation is a process for the administration that cannot be completed overnight. Another key topic this year will be the future concept for the city center. "I see major challenges in our city center that we can only overcome together with the retailers and owners. We still face many questions here, but also exciting tasks this year and in the coming years," says Lord Mayor Schwenke. Once the concept for the future has been adopted in the course of this year, the aim will be to create a structure for implementing the concept's recommendations and to tackle the first measures.
In addition, the Economic Development Agency will continue to drive forward the development of the Kaiserlei, in particular the tender for the new commercial areas of the traffic circle currently being dismantled, oversee the development of the former freight station site and further expand marketing. "Offenbach has improved its image as a business location, particularly following the development of the port and the intensive marketing of the Kaiserlei. We now need to build on this momentum. That is why we will be working hard to develop the city's marketing in 2020. The main focus will be on location and city center marketing," concludes Schwenke.
