Real Estate and Urban Development

Essen is a head-office city and is the service centre of the Metropole Ruhr. The headquarters of large companies shape the Essen skyline.

The Essen office market impresses with its constancy and predictability. Again in 2008, Essen was able to report a positive trend marked by high floor space sales and steady rents.

The Ruhr region belongs to the top three German office markets. Within the Ruhr region, the City of Essen has the largest office market with the highest levels of turnover. The office landscape in Essen is characterised by a sophisticated variety of first-class office space in different locations.

The commercial space available in Essen covers very different demands. For example, large areas with excellent transport connections and a number of smaller commercial areas scattered over the whole city offer a versatile range of possibilities.

In the development of commercial locations, EWG - Essener Wirtschaftsförderungsgesellschaft mbH (Essen Economic Development Agency) also follows the principle of Public-Private-Partnership (PPP). Architectural quality requirements have led to Essen being an excellent address for companies. Therefore, classical space utilisation with commercial operations is mixed with office utilisation in some areas.

The retail industry in Essen is characterised by tradition, variety and innovation. Essen was the first city in Germany to establish a pedestrian precinct, with the Limbecker Strasse in 1927. Now far more than 700 shops and stores shape the city with over 300,000 square metres of retail space. The choice ranges from small and independent specialised shops to the major chains, and includes the shopping centres of Rathaus Galerie and Limbecker Platz, one of the largest inner-city shopping centres in Germany.

More than 580,000 inhabitants, the high number of people employed close to the city centre, the excellent accessibility by car or public transport and the central location within the Ruhr region all make Essen a retail location of a special quality. Here, resident retailers benefit from a huge customer base and sales market. Essen is THE shopping city.

Research facilities, universities, laboratories, technology and start-up centres and in particular numerous innovative companies form a highly concentrated technology cluster on both sides of the A 40 motorway in the Ruhr metropolis.

Various centres of technological innovation in the municipal area of Essen offer the scope and diverse opportunities for innovation and corporate commitment. Medion AG has pooled its company headquarters and service facilities in the technology campus on the A 40. On the other side of the motorway is the Essen Technology Park. Essen's Technology and Development Centre ETEC, one of the largest in Germany, is only a short distance away.

The range of further centres of technological innovation in Essen varies up to industry-orientated special properties, the range of which is exactly adapted to the requirements of the respective target group.