27 July 2022. WAZ Mülheim.

The condition of the former promenade has been discussed for years. Experts are also looking at Forum and RRZ

Mülheim’s city center has long since lost the splendor of its past. So much has been said and written about problems with shopping and public spaces that hardly anyone still engages with them. Is all hope truly lost, or is there a way forward? We asked Mülheim real estate experts.

Walter Orts has worked in real estate for half a century and is managing director of the company bearing his name—according to him, the city’s second-oldest. His opening remark about Schloßstraße is surprising: “It is not about rent levels,” says Orts. Today, there is not even a shoe shop, menswear store, or perfumery. “It is about the overall design. There is a hairdresser and a discount bakery on every corner.” Schloßstraße used to be a promenade.

Specialist shops are missing

“Why are the specialist shops gone?” asks Walter Orts. There is also too little outdoor dining. He sees the Forum as one reason for the decline. Former Forum manager Wolfgang Pins had succeeded in attracting appealing tenants. This increasingly made Schloßstraße less attractive. A shopping street should look different. “The city center needs shops people want to visit!” says Orts. “I hope I live to see Schloßstraße become a shopping street people enjoy visiting again.”

Orts also has a clear view of Forum and Rhein-Ruhr-Zentrum. “Rents in Forum are relatively high, and service charges are even higher than the rent.” The problem with Rhein-Ruhr-Zentrum is that it has not been updated. “It used to be very attractive. Now it has stood still,” concludes Walter Orts.

Eckhard Brockhoff of Brockhoff Immobilien, which also markets the former Tengelmann site, sees a general problem. “There is too much retail space in the Ruhr region, much of it created by shopping center construction,” he says. Developers once promised city authorities the centers would attract customers from outside the area. “But apart from Christmas shopping, visitors from further afield do not come.” Purchasing power has generally declined. “Shopping centers are often busy, but visitors are not the people who generate sales.” There are too few people seen “with shopping bags in their hands.”

Insufficient purchasing power

Brockhoff also sees weak purchasing power as a particular problem for Mülheim. “Mülheim is ‘overshopped’—there is too much retail space relative to residents’ purchasing power,” he says. “Smaller arcades such as Forum are almost impossible to re-let and no longer have a reason to exist.”

Brockhoff shares Orts’s view of Forum. “Unlike Centro in Oberhausen, too little has been invested in Rhein-Ruhr-Zentrum for too long. Now it is paying the price. Rising interest rates and construction costs are also sending renovation costs through the roof.” It is now difficult to find tenants able to pay rents that can finance the planned renovation, which the owner is questioning. Weakness among major tenants adds to the problem. “But the RRZ used to depend on exactly those tenants,” says Brockhoff.

The two experts agree about Schloßstraße: above all, it lacks specialist shops. Potential customers with greater purchasing power therefore prefer to shop in Düsseldorf or Cologne rather than Mülheim. Residents have lost their connection to their own city center. Brockhoff sees a solution in attracting new specialist shops and customers with spending power.

“Shopping in Mülheim needs to be livelier. People also want to spend time in the city center.” That requires cafés, restaurants, and other amenities. “This applies not only to Schloßstraße but also to Leineweberstraße,” says Brockhoff, ending on a note of hope. “Lower rents could bring back restaurant concepts and specialist shops once pushed out by fashion chains.”

Elias Dohmen of Franke Immobilien also knows Schloßstraße’s negative trajectory. “The trend has clearly been negative for a long time.” One reason is the loss of quality. “There is potential,” says Dohmen. The problem is the lack of care given to the city center. “Quality has moved to the shopping centers.” Forum, by contrast, looks shabby. “Everything is increasingly shifting toward online retail. That makes development difficult for commercial real estate,” says Dohmen. Alexander Waldhelm