Offenbach Economic Development Agency presents annual report 2023

The design of the future Offenbach is based on the Masterplan 2030, for which Albert Speer und Partner carried out a comprehensive check-up at the halfway point last year. The result: since 2016, a third of the measures have been implemented, 45% are currently being realized and 14 hectares of potential areas in commercial and mixed-use zones have been developed. The successes - particularly in the port and on the Innovation Campus - are helping Offenbach to be perceived as young, hip, creative and dynamic. The "Soul OF Hessen" city brand introduced in 2023 captures this feeling as charmingly as it does successfully. Now it is time to consistently pursue the key projects of the master plan.

This also includes the Kaiserlei district. A prime example of the development at the location was Danfoss moving in: after 50 years in the Bieber-Waldhof industrial estate, the technology company moved into its new administration and sales headquarters with 400 workstations in the LEIQ office building. In addition to district heating from EVO, the ultra-modern building directly on the Main uses the world market leader's own air conditioning technology for its_{CO2 neutrality}, which is groundbreaking throughout Germany. The development in Offenbach's port is also future-oriented: the Rockywood building complex was built in 2023, in less than a year's construction time, largely in sustainable wood-hybrid construction and is now almost completely let. In addition to the bicycle manufacturer Advanced Technologies and the communications agency TMS, the exciting circular economy hub - called "Circle" - is moving in under the leadership of the Frankfurt-based waste disposal and forwarding company Blasius Schuster KG. Its aim is to attract as many participants as possible in order to improve the circular economy, particularly in the construction sector. "This is a cooperation in a future-oriented industry that is profitable for everyone involved," emphasized Schwenke. "With Rockywood, our harbor district is now also taking an important step forward as a commercial and office location."

The establishment of networks plays a major role overall: everyone involved continues to get "out of the box" and pull together, they dare to try new things and develop Offenbach further together. With this in mind, the Kaiserlei Business Club was launched in March 2023. The core idea of the initiative is to see the district as a joint neighborhood development by owners and the city and to focus on the needs of the users. One of the first ideas is a sports and cultural park below the A 661 - a project that is actively supported by Danfoss, among others.

Interest in space in Offenbach remains at a high level: the Economic Development Agency received more than 200 inquiries on a wide range of space and usage topics in 2023. "Half of these again came from interested parties who are not yet active in Offenbach. This also underlines the attractiveness of our location," said the mayor. Among other things, he promoted Offenbach at the World Economic Forum in Davos and, together with Head of Office Niermann, at MIPIM in Cannes, one of the most important meetings of the international real estate industry. The top-class TOP 100 meeting and the traditional real estate breakfast took place on site again in 2023.

As the report shows, Offenbach continues to be "Full OF Ideas": the city remains at the top of the country in terms of start-up intensity and also improved its top ranking nationwide. It is now presenting the "Gründerstadt Offenbach" offerings in a new look, and the mentoring program was given a breath of fresh air in 2023 with a new mentor. At the Impact Festival, Europe's largest event for sustainable technologies and innovations, which once again took place in Offenbach, Gründerstadt Offenbach presented itself for the first time at a joint stand with the city and the Chamber of Industry and Commerce in September 2023. "The aim is to accelerate the green transition together and make future topics more visible," reported Božica Niermann. Interest is growing: 3,100 people visited the Impact Festival on the Fredenhagen site in 2023, 600 more than the year before.

With the aim of creating a vibrant "Heart OF Our City", the city of Offenbach is also actively promoting the development of the city center. A cooperation between City Management, which is part of the Economic Development Department, the municipal Office for Cultural Management and the German Weather Service has created a permanent attraction there: the Weather and Climate Workshop (WKW) moved into new, larger premises in the city center in spring 2023. The exhibition space, which now covers 390 square meters, gives it much more room for an interactive experience and adventure space all about weather and climate. This makes the vision for the city center a little more visible: the future concept creates a multidimensional center by 2030 that meets all needs - retail and supply, participation and representation, culture and community, work and living.

The Agentur Mitte business development agency is currently dedicated to the overall coordination of 16 future projects from this concept. Its team was expanded to three positions in 2023, significantly increasing its capacities and expertise. As a basic building block for a forward-looking city center, Agentur Mitte drove forward the development of the former police store. The pilot project was used as an open space for everyone throughout the year: as a city space, a bike space and a youth space. Various target groups came together around the town hall pavilion at a variety of events, and the town courtyard was also used. The ongoing "Thinking Openly" dialog with three workshops and the HfG project "Diamant Offenbach", a temporary "Museum of Urban Culture", also brought a lot of movement to the city centre. The successful conclusion in 2023 was the pilot project of the "Testraum-Allee": with the mini department store OF 10 - OFTEN, it heralded the renaissance of Frankfurter Strasse around the first Advent. "The premiere was a success," emphasized Schwenke: high-quality design products, international cuisine and a varied supporting program proved to be crowd-pullers.

The agile, dynamic local cultural and creative scene offers innovative products and services on a daily basis. The Economic Development Agency has been helping to network, strengthen and raise the profile of the mostly small companies in Offenbach since 2007. In 2023, numerous events were held to this end - such as the industry get-together "Into the Wild", the "Into Design" festival and the creative industries summer festival. There was also a cooperation with the city's Klingspor Museum. The "Power OF Design" is present in many places in the creative city and has gained further strength in 2023. In order to advance the Designpark project on the Innovation Campus and the urban transformation in Offenbach as a whole, the city signed a cooperation agreement with the Hochschule für Gestaltung (HfG) in the summer. In addition, the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main region - and therefore Offenbach - was awarded the internationally renowned title of "World Design Capital" for the year 2026.

The economic development agency's annual report shows that Offenbach offers a wealth of prospects, and the "Future OF Business" will continue in 2024. "Samson's electronics production facility on the Innovation Campus is set to go into operation in the course of the year," announced Schwenke. The relocation of the industrial company from Frankfurt to Offenbach with around 2,000 employees should be completed by the end of 2026. By the end of this decade, when the biotech company BioSpring has also built new production facilities on the Innovation Campus, more people will be working there than in the heyday of the chemical industry in the 1970s. "We are doing everything we can to ensure that these economic prospects become reality," assured the mayor.

The Kaiserlei district will continue to be developed into a premium business location at the interface to Frankfurt. In order to initiate the development of the former KWU site, the city adapted the building law for the area in question to the existing plans in November. "We are now continuing our efforts to support our partners in finding solutions in order to realize apartments for 1,500 students from 2024 as well as the other plans for the site," said Schwenke.

Now that the location for Station Mitte has been determined, this key project for revitalizing the city centre can really get going. The new knowledge, learning and meeting place is just as important for the development of the city center as it is for education in Offenbach. "In 2024, we will spend more money on the city center, which we will use to test innovative store concepts in addition to the Station Mitte, we will improve our intervention options with the pre-emption rights statute and we will once again reorganize our administration internally on the topic of the city center," announced the mayor. "We are actively shaping the future of our city - and we are happy to do so." The closing words in the annual report invite all interested parties to get involved.