Stadtwirtschaft becomes a creative centre and innovation hub

At its meeting yesterday, the city council decided to develop the former Stadtwirtschaft on the southern Sonnenberg into a creative courtyard with space for creative makers.

The Stadtwirtschaft is an intervention site for the European Capital of Culture 2025. On the municipal property between Augustusburger Straße, Zietenstraße, Jakobstraße and Schüffnerstraße - in the centre of the Sonnenberg redevelopment area - three courtyards connect five buildings with approx. 6,000 square metres of usable space, which have only been partially used to date.

The buildings are to undergo low-threshold refurbishment and be better equipped with technical facilities. With a mixture of art and culture, production with local relevance, crafts and social encounters, a place of exchange and togetherness is to be created - a district centre and centre of attraction for Chemnitz residents and start-ups from all over Europe.

The Kreativhof creates offers that support the pre-foundation phase (development of the business idea, feasibility studies, development of prototypes) and ideas from crafts, small businesses and citizens. Each courtyard is assigned to a specific maker activity and is surrounded by workshop spaces. There will also be space for community activities, theatre projects, an event room, e.g. for district meetings and workshops or the neighbourhood canteen for working together over a coffee. A district warehouse will be available to tenants and the neighbourhood.

Children will find just as much to do in the "Stadtwirtschaft" as hobbyists and start-ups. Lighting concepts, flexible street furniture and a "Stadtwirtschaft" brand will be developed jointly.

The existing tenants will be brought together with future users and the neighbourhood. Everyone can participate. The development scenario provides a good basis for this. The first sections, including the building at D Jakobstr. 46, have already been realised and were made possible with the help of European funding and the city's "KRACH - Kreativraum Chemnitz" project. The refurbishment of the House A complex is currently being planned.

The site will be developed in three phases. Phase one "Appropriate + Display" comprises the short-term development of the site. The first pioneer uses and existing tenants are to establish themselves on the site. New entrances with "gatehouses" indicate the opening of the site into the neighbourhood. In phase two "Supplement + Expand", further existing buildings will be remodelled and renovated. The site will be extended by adding storeys and bridges and supplemented by utilising adjacent areas and creating new green spaces. The site will be made accessible from all sides via roof terraces, neighbouring gardens, stairs and ramps. By 2025, a place with space for makers of the Capital of Culture will be created. With phase three "densification + stabilisation", the urban economy will be established in the long term. Private investment can supplement the existing buildings and close the edges of the blocks.

It is estimated that total costs of around 7.1 million euros will be required for the development of the areas and buildings. Around half of the comprehensive urban development project is to be financed from the city's own funds and support funds from various funding programmes, some of which have already been approved. Realisation is subject to the provision of these funds and subsidies.

Revitalisation of the municipal economy is a National Urban Development Project 2021

Federal Minister Horst Seehofer announced yesterday that the Stadtwirtschaft project in Chemnitz - on the recommendation of an independent jury - has been included in the federal programme "National Urban Development Projects 2021" as one of 24 projects that will receive a total of around 75 million euros in federal funding. 98 cities and municipalities from all over Germany had applied.