Waterfront Bremen

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Waterfront Bremen
Waterfront Bremen
Basic data
Location: Ports (Bremen)
Opening: September 12, 2008
(Space Park: February 12, 2004)
Total area: 300,000
Sales area : 44,000 m²
Shops: around 120 (2019)
Owner : ECE Projektmanagement GmbH & Co. KG
Website: Website of the Waterfront Bremen
Transport links
Railway station: Bremen Central Station
Bus stop: Use Akschen
Tram : 3, 5
Motorways : A281
Parking spaces : 4,000
Technical specifications
Construction time : 2001-2003
Architects : RKW Rhode Kellermann Wawrowsky

The Waterfront Bremen in the Bremen district of Industriehäfen is a shopping center with elements of an urban entertainment center and was opened on September 12, 2008. Until July 31, 2015, the operators were the LNC Property Group, based in Dublin, Ireland, and Resolution Property in London, England. Since August 1, 2015, it has been operated by the German ECE alone. It is located on the Weser on a site that was used by Werft AG Weser until 1983 and by the urban entertainment center Space Park Bremen in 2003/2004 .

Connection

The Weser promenade along the shopping center is its own ferry dock Waterfront / Pier 2 from May to September from Hal över approached as part of the harbor cruises. In addition, the Waterfront is on the expressway A 281 (towards overseas city) to the motorway A 27 tethered. The shopping center can also be reached by tram line 3 and line 5 , get off at the Use Akschen stop .

history

Opening of the Space Park

Entrance area to the Space Center within Space Park in 2004
Orphaned passage of Space Park in 2006

The Space Park project was developed in the early 1990s by Wiesbaden-based, now defunct, Köllmann AG as a subsequent use for the site of the former AG Weser together with the partially realized Ocean Park in Bremerhaven . The core idea was the combination of entertainment and retail that is typical of urban entertainment centers. It was financed with subsidies of Bremen, as the owner of the joined Dresdner Bank belonging DEGI in appearance. After the realization from July 2000 to December 19, 2003, the amusement park was opened on February 12, 2004. The costs were around 600 million euros.

The main topic was space travel , which was presented as edutainment . In the course of the planning, Space Park Bremen was designed as an entertainment system, including themes from the science fiction series Star Trek and Stargate . In addition to accompanying restaurants and an adjacent hotel , the economic core area was the retail area with over 40,000 m² of sales area . 40 restaurants and 120 shops were planned. Already in the construction phase it became apparent that the retail area was vastly oversized. No anchor tenants could be found, so there was no retail store until the opening.

In February 2004 the Space Center was opened as the first covered amusement park in Germany. It was one of the first German urban entertainment centers. After seven months of operation, it became clear that the calculated annual visitor numbers of 1.3 million could not be achieved with this restricted use. The reasons given by visitors were high admission prices, meager entertainment options and the lack of gastronomic infrastructure within the site. The original concept envisaged that visitors should only pay for the individual elements or rides - similar to the Bremer Freimarkt . With the all-inclusive price for almost the entire entertainment offer, however, access to some of the restaurants was also restricted. The jobs promised were not created - the majority were temporary low-income earners. The Space Park was closed on September 26, 2004 due to a lack of visitors. Media reports at the time of the closure spoke of an investment ruin and an economic failure for the investor.

Closure of the Space Park and reorientation

The only companies on the Space Park premises that continued to operate after the closure were the Cinespace multiplex cinema and a hotel.

In the summer of 2005, the building, which was only kept cold, was used for the shooting of the crime scene Requiem with Bremen inspector Inga Lürssen ( Sabine Postel ); this was broadcast in autumn 2005.

In November 2005, the Space Park appeared to have been sold to the Canadian investor group Triple Five (see Mall of America ). But negotiations with Triple Five failed because the group of investors could not afford the purchase price. Several other investors were interested in the property.

The new concept for the building provided for a shopping area of ​​44,000 m², while the entertainment area was to cover 20,000 m². The rides of the former Space Park were completely dismantled and sold; only the Cinespace Multiplex cinema remained . The facility, now known as the Waterfront , should open up towards the Weser with around 4,000 free parking spaces, 1,400 of which in the underground car park and an additional 2,500 spaces in planned parking garages. The space concept was exchanged for a maritime concept. The 800 meter long Weser promenade and the Weser Shipyard Island should be used more. The Max Bögl group of companies was commissioned as general contractor at the end of December 2007 .

Entrance area of ​​the waterfront in October 2008
Passage of the waterfront in 2008

Reopening as a waterfront

In March 2006 the building was sold to the British financial investment group Cardinal Asset Management . The buyer declared from the beginning that he did not want to use the property himself and eventually sold the property to the Irish financial services provider LNC Property Group for 50 million euros . In February 2007, LNC boss Bill McCabe announced that the LNC wanted to invest a further 80 to 100 million euros to structurally align the area towards the Weser and to reopen the retail area under the name Waterfront Bremen in September 2008. A catchment area with a distance of up to 100 kilometers and an average number of 25,000 visitors a day was calculated.

The shopping area was opened on September 12, 2008. The anchor tenant was the British-Irish textile retailer Primark , a subsidiary of the food company Associated British Foods , which opened its first branch in Germany. The opening took place on May 22, 2009. The pulling power of this anchor tenant alone has clearly increased the number of visitors.

In 2010, 5 million visitors came to the waterfront, while in 2012 an increase to 7 million visitors was expected.

Since 2009, the waterfront triathlon of the same name has also been held at the waterfront, which goes over the sprint and Olympic distance.

The affiliated multiplex cinema center Cinespace kept its name from the former Space Park and now includes 11 cinemas, which are also joined by the abandoned IMAX cinema. In the former IMAX hall, which has the largest cinema screen in Bremen, digital 3D films can be shown, as well as in three other halls .

On August 1, 2015, ECE took over the waterfront from the LNC Property Group, after the latter had already sold the waterfront to ECE in April 2015 for 250 million euros.

The gastronomic area is an attraction: In the meantime, more than 20 catering providers have settled in the food court of the Waterfront and there are around 500 seats available (as of 2019). The “extraordinary” architecture of the food court, which dates back to the days of the Space Park, with the “round shape, the high ceiling and the glass front facing the Weser provides a very special atmosphere”.

In 2019 over 7 million visitors came to the waterfront; the number of stores was around 120.

Web links

Commons : Waterfront Bremen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Weser-Kurier: ECE takes over Waterfront
  2. ^ Weser-Kurier, December 28, 2007
  3. Bernd Schneider: New major tenant in the waterfront . In: Weser-Kurier of April 8, 2009
  4. Jürgen Hinrichs: The waterfront should be bigger . In: Weser-Kurier from June 4, 2012
  5. Weser-Kurier: ECE takes over Waterfront
  6. ^ Weser-Kurier: Shopping park in Bremen - Waterfront sold for 250 million euros
  7. ^ A b Marc Hagedorn: A visit to the food court in the Bremen waterfront. In: weser-kurier.de . January 19, 2020, accessed January 20, 2020 .

Coordinates: 53 ° 6 ′ 40.3 "  N , 8 ° 44 ′ 53.9"  E