Münster: Into the future with city centre management

Client: City of Münster, Münster Marketing

Project period: 2021 – ongoing

The project in brief

Since mid-2021, we have been advising the independent city of Münster (population approx. 318,000) on its development from city and event management to holistic city centre management. Together with our client, Münster Marketing, we think and act in a future-oriented way – in order to proactively address issues such as structural change in city centers or climate change and to shape the necessary transformation.

Task and background

Münster’s city centre is well organized, agile and broad-based. In many areas, communication between the stakeholders works and people are involved. Projects are carried out successfully in close, trusting and responsible cooperation.

This good starting position is both an incentive and an obligation for the city center players in Münster. They are aware that the (inner) cities are changing, are under massive pressure and in competition with each other, and will be significantly less characterized by retail and gastronomy in the future.

Münster also needs to open up its city center and (re)develop from a commercial city to a civic city center. Many and very different stakeholders must be involved in order to incorporate all perspectives and needs of urban society. They should be motivated to help create and continuously develop the city center into a place for everyone.

Our way of working

The city centre management is designed as an extension of the existing city management – as an agile and sustainable structure that succeeds in involving and valuing all local players.

The central topics are:

Proactive support for structural change.
Designing the city centre as an everyday place.
Promoting climate resilience.

We are meeting these challenges with the following strategic measures:

Stakeholder management: Integrating the needs of all stakeholders.
Sensitization to the issues of the future.
Designing an organizational structure that fits into the fabric of the city and does justice to agility.
Formation of a sounding board that acts as a think tank for the core team and guarantees that all areas of the city are incorporated into the design of the city center.