KRACH - Kreativraum Chemnitz: Space to unfold

With the launch of the website www.krach-chemnitz.eu, Chemnitz launches the competition for the "KRACH - Kreativraum Chemnitz" development prize, which aims to attract companies and projects from the creative sector from all over Europe to the city. Private and municipal property companies provide free rental space for several years for the sponsorship prize. Award winners also receive a start-up budget of 2,500 euros as well as advice from experts in business, law and marketing. Up to ten projects per year are to be supported in this way. A project outline must be submitted in order to apply. The application deadline for the first funding year is 31 January 2018.

"Our aim is to make the city more colourful and international by attracting new companies," explains Sören Uhle, Managing Director of Chemnitzer Wirtschaftsförderungs- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH (CWE), which developed the sponsorship award together with the City of Chemnitz and "Kreatives Chemnitz - Branchenverband der Kultur- und Kreativwirtschaft Chemnitz und Umgebung" e. V. V. has developed the award. "KRACH - Kreativraum Chemnitz" is based on the "IncrediBOL!" funding programme, which has been used to successfully establish creative and cultural projects in the Italian city of Bologna for several years. It has been adapted for Chemnitz with partners from the property and creative industries: "To achieve this, we are utilising the potential that our city has to offer: short distances to the decision-makers in the city, close networking between companies in the creative industries and industry and the available open space to develop," continued Uhle.

Together with the city planning office, neighbourhoods were identified in which an increasing number of companies from the cultural and creative industries have settled in recent years. These approaches are to be further strengthened in the sense of cluster formation. The districts in which KRACH properties are located therefore include Sonnenberg, the city centre, the Brühl district, the Schlossviertel and Altchemnitzer Straße with the spinning mill. Here, the municipal property and building management company (GGG) and its subsidiary Wohnen in Chemnitz GmbH (WiC) as well as the private companies Dritte Sinus Beteiligungs GmbH und Co. KG (Unger Group) and Spinnwerk GmbH und Co. KG have been secured as landlords to support KRACH, providing the subsidised projects with free rental space for two to three years. Only the ancillary costs have to be borne by the selected projects.

The properties on offer are diverse: ready-to-occupy office or retail space can be found as well as properties in shell condition or office or workshop space still in need of renovation, which can be customised by the award winners. "We want to appeal to people who want to develop themselves and their project to become economically viable and help shape our city in the process," explains Sören Uhle.

An international jury is responsible for selecting the subsidised projects. Before they make their decision, a joint weekend is planned during which the applicants can familiarise themselves with the city and the KRACH spaces on offer and the initiators, landlords, jurors and applicants can get to know each other. The first award winners will be announced in March 2018.

Further information

Information on the sponsorship award is available in German and English at www.krach-chemnitz.eu and on the social networks Facebook, Instagram and Twitter under "krachchemnitz".

Photographs

Printable photographs of KRACH objects are available on request by e-mail: presse(at)klangvonblau.de

Contact KRACH funding programme

Chemnitzer Wirtschaftsförderungs- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH
Frank Schönfeld
Phone: +49 371 366 0233
Mail: schoenfeld(at)cwe-chemnitz.de

Press office of the City of Chemnitz
Phone: +49 371 488 1531
Mail: pressestelle(at)stadt-chemnitz.de