The lease for the Idar-Oberstein pop-up store ended on June 15, 2025 and it's time for the city's economic development department and the "City Mood" city management team to take stock. In August 2023, the former Frank Moda shoe store was rented as part of the "Sustainable inner cities and centers" funding program and used as a pop-up store and office of the "City Mood" center management at the same time. Under the motto "Your ideas - your business - our support", four young women used the retail space together until the end of the year as a low-cost opportunity to make contact with customers, test their business ideas and then establish them as self-employed retailers.
Despite intensive advertising, no further interested parties could be found to rent the pop-up store. Only the use of the shop window space could still be realized. The retail space in the pop-up store could be rented to interested parties for €1/m², but this was probably not enough of an incentive.
The city's economic development department and the "City Mood" city management team are grateful for the experience gained from renting and setting up the retail store. Idar-Oberstein only had the opportunity to try out this temporary retail experience thanks to funding from the federal program "Sustainable inner cities and centers". This showed that pop-up stores and coworking spaces, which are still the focus of many funding programs for activating city centers, are not the last word in wisdom and should not be seen as a panacea for activating city centers.
For Idar-Oberstein, it has become apparent that only a small number of founders in the retail sector venture into self-employment. The fact that Hanna Herzog's Gerda's in the lower part of the Oberstein pedestrian zone has emerged from the pop-up store is a positive development.
For the core areas of Idar-Oberstein, the topic of pop-up stores has been shelved for the time being. Over the past two years, the economic development and city management teams have held many discussions with building owners in the pedestrian zones and many have also shown an interest in reducing the rent if only a use could be realized again. This shows that there is currently a lack of interested parties for the properties rather than the owners insisting on high rents. Furthermore, the architecture of many properties in our city centers is no longer up to date and they are often not barrier-free and small in size, which makes them difficult to use as retail spaces. In addition, many factors are certainly important for the attractiveness of city centers. Of central importance here is the creation of places with a quality of stay and experience. This goes beyond a pure retail location. The city's economic development department is convinced that sustainable concepts and targeted investments are the key to making our city centers lively and attractive again. In this context, the stakeholders would like to thank all those who have supported the project and look forward to innovative approaches for a positive development of the core city areas.