The City Galerie, opened in Aschaffenburg city center in 1974 as Europe’s largest shopping center in a medium-sized town, is located in the heart of Aschaffenburg. It borders directly on Schöntal Park and the inner-city pedestrian zone. Thanks to its central location, the center has excellent accessibility. As a regional center, the university city serves a catchment area of a further 400,000 people in addition to its almost 70,000 urban residents.
Over the years, the City Galerie has been renovated and extended several times. The largest shopping center in northern Bavaria currently comprises around 57,000 m² of commercial floor space, including more than 46,600 m² of retail space on two mall levels and four floors. For a convenient shopping experience, visitors to the City Galerie also have around 1,700 parking spaces on eleven floors at their disposal. The more than 70 stores offer a wide range of products, including clothing, food and cosmetics.
Creative conversion: Karstadt becomes a KITA
The “Kleine Riesen” kindergarten opened in June 2021, alleviating the shortage of daycare places in the area. In the shopping center managed by Jagdfeld Real Estate, 99 nursery and crèche children will have a much sought-after place in the future.
Where Karstadt once resided on the fifth floor, there are now the three kindergarten and two crèche groups, which will have around 1,000 m² of space. There is also plenty of space to play and run around on the 700 m² terrace, which has been specially designed for this purpose. There is direct access to the terrace from every group room. It also includes an 80 m² multi-purpose room that can be used for sports and gymnastics. Large windows provide the “little giants” and their teachers with plenty of light and air.
Revitalization of the mall
Jagdfeld Real Estate undertook a comprehensive revitalization of one of Aschaffenburg’s most important shopping, service and gastronomy locations as well as a central social meeting point. The city center, which will be managed by Jagdfeld Real Estate from 2018, accounts for around a quarter of the city’s retail space. The owner Principal Real Estate Europe invested EUR 8 million in the modernization. The project was implemented while the shopping center was in operation.
The measures included the refurbishment of the footcourt, the creation of new comfortable lounge areas with power sockets, the redesign of the floors, a new human-centric lighting concept, the replacement of the ceilings and the redesign of all entrances, including the entrances to and from the parking garage. In addition, a new fire alarm system including a smoke aspiration system was installed to further increase safety in the mall. The measures also involved the implementation of a new corporate design. The aim was to increase the quality of the location in the long term as well as the quality of stay. In the course of this, the owner also supported the tenants in modernizing their store building. Further details can be found in the press release and in our case study. Here you will also find a before and after documentation:
