The State Government of North Rhine-Westphalia is to provide 14.5 M € of support for the development of the gate.ruhr industrial and commercial area on the site of the Auguste Victoria 3/7 mine in Marl/Germany, which was shut down in 2015. Prof. Andreas Pinkwart, State Minister of Economic Affairs for North Rhine-Westphalia, presented the grant notice to Werner Arndt, Mayor of Marl, and Markus Masuth, Chairman of the Board of RAG Montan Immobilien GmbH (RAG MI), Essen, in the presence of the President of the District Government of Münster, Dorothee Feller (Figure 1). During the initial stage, gate.ruhr GmbH (City of Marl: 51 %, RAG MI: 49 %) will develop and market a net area of 12.5 ha. The funding for this comes from the joint scheme of the Federal Government and the States for the “Improvement of the regional economic structure,” in which the state is a co-participant.
Prof. Pinkwart: “The closure of the coal mines, as well as our impending withdrawal from coal-fired power generation, open up space for the further development of North Rhine-Westphalia as an industrial location. As the gate.ruhr project shows, we are investing in the future of the Auguste Victoria site and creating jobs in the Emscher-Lippe region. This project will attract attention to the entire Ruhr area and beyond and will also be a draw for internationally-active companies.”
Arndt: “Several thousand mineworkers were employed at Auguste Victoria until its closure. With gate.ruhr, we are ensuring that there will be good jobs here for the children of our miners and for their children’s children, and that things continue to improve for our city and region.”
Masuth: “For us and for the City of Marl, this agreement is an important milestone in the realisation of the overall gate.ruhr project. We can now get started on the necessary works without delay. Over the next few years, the transformation of the former colliery site on Carl-Duisberg-Straße into an attractive location for industry and commerce will become concrete.”
Feller: “gate.ruhr is not only a key project for Marl; it also stands for the change in perspective of the entire Emscher-Lippe region and its joint concentration on opportunities and potential. What could be a better symbol of this change than gate.ruhr, with its future 12.5 ha to be accessed via water, road and rail?”
The City of Marl has drawn up a utilisation plan for the entire site on the basis of a two-phase feasibility study which received 1.8 M € of support from the EU and the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. During the first phase of the realisation, an area of 12.5 ha to the north and south of Nordstraße, which leads to the Chemistry Park, will be developed. At the same time, preparations will be made for the development of two further sub-sections, which are still subject to the supervision of the mining authorities:
- To the north, there is an industrial harbour with connections to the Wesel-Datteln Canal and to the railway and motorway networks. Preparations are currently underway for release from mining authority supervision and agreements are being made with the Waterways and Shipping Office on future usage by companies relocating to the area.
- To the south, the disused mine site will link with the project area of the first construction phase. Preparatory works have already begun here as well.
Eventually, the former colliery site will provide a net area of approximately 45 ha of industrial and commercial space for future-oriented investment in the Emscher-Lippe region, creating approximately 1,000 new jobs. (MWIDE/Si.)
