A Space for Innovations and Ideas in Bremen City
Startups"City UpTrade" funding supports the establishment of syniotec's creative and innovation centre
Arne Stehnken has a lot to do these days: not only does he have to put the final polish on the building services engineering but the first tenants have already moved into their new offices and the grand opening of the café is getting ever closer. And in addition to all this, the 44-year old still has to handle day-to-day business for the software company. However, the entrepreneur from Bremen is on a mission: "The city must become more lively and vibrant." And as his contribution to this goal, Stehnken has created a space at a prominent site am Wall, by Bremen's medieval ramparts, where innovative and creative ideas can flourish.
syniotec's Managing Director first moved his company here in 2021. As the neighbouring plots had been unoccupied for quite some time, this inspired Stehnken to imagine a new vision for the area: as he said himself, "we simply had to do something with them". "We're right in the middle of the city centre here, and extremely visible. We don't just think of ourselves as being at the geographical gateway to Bremen: we also want to open doors to and within the city, some of which might not always be obvious or indeed easy". This is how Stehnken describes the motivation behind the "Kreativ- und Innovationskontor" co-working space, which opened in July. There, company founders, start-ups and creative minds have low-threshold access to work spaces, right next to the syniotec premises.
The new office space contains 30 workspaces spread across 200 square metres. Syniotec has a management role there and sees to the day-to-day running of the premises, whereas Stehnken manages the office space itself.
"Creating something attractive for Bremen city centre"
Rental agreements are a common problem for people who want to start a company: they often involve long leases and put off many recently graduated entrepreneurs. Stehnken would like to offer more flexibility and also promote the idea of networking. As the Bremen businessman says, this is what separates his vision from the more usual concepts: "We're not a traditional co-working space in that we're keen to attract anchor tenants. "I'd like to have people who rent for the medium- and long-term and can build a community to which people can bring their complementary skills." He hopes to achieve this by having a multi-sector mixture of companies and open communal spaces in which the founders can get to know each other and exchange ideas.
Regular networking events, to which guests from the worlds of commerce, creativity and start-ups are invited, will help bring this idea to life. Arne Stehnken summed up his vision as "We want to create something attractive for Bremen's city centre, that will provide something for everyone". This also includes new workplaces and jobs, especially in IT. This is the syniotec Managing Director's pet project, not least because he brought the construction sector into the digital age with the start-up he founded in 2018.
Arne Stehnken wants to make his new ideas clearly visible in the city centre, especially for innovative small-scale businesses. One of the approaches he has in mind is to use the huge display window at the am Wall site: in future, the window panes will show images of networking partners and companies involved in cooperative ventures. The 44-year old also views himself as a business facilitator and aims to make it easier for companies to access financial capital, funding sources, orders and customers.
Work and play: co-working space and childcare under one roof
Gina Hardt is one of the first tenants to move into the new "Kreativ- und Innovationskontor" co-working space at am Wall, on the corner of Sögestraße. This young mother from Bremen had a problem that will be familiar to many parents: the challenging childcare situation in the city. She has now used the syniotec premises in Bremen to open the first co-working space to offer integrated childcare: "Work and Play". Her target group is the self-employed and employees who need either stop-gap solutions or regular care for their children. Instead of working from home with their little ones, they bring the children into a co-working office. "This means work is no longer fixed to a specific location, and childcare is easy to access", said Hardt.
"Work and Play" can be used flexibly to cover gaps in childcare or as an alternative to an employee's daycare. Parents in Bremen can benefit from up to 15 hours childcare a week. Four children are currently being looked after at the am Wall premises, in a specially designed space with play areas and changing stations. "We're delighted with the way it's working out with "Work and Play", this is exactly the sort of thing that Bremen needs", emphasised Arne Stehnken.
Start-up financing from the City-UpTrade initiative
The new "Kreativ- und Innovationskontor" co-working space isn't just a place for people who are setting up a company or start-ups, it's also designed to attract artists. For example, the premises are home to Alexa Rasch from Bremen, who founded the GOODis art project in 2020. In GOODis, by creating artworks from the rubbish she has collected, she shows, in a most impressive manner, that any kind of rubbish has a use. The diversity and fresh approach of syniotec's innovative concept has also impressed Bremeninvest. The opening of the "Kreativ- und Innovationskontor" co-working space at am Wall is part of the "City UpTrade" funding programme, which aims to attract retailers, service providers, artisans and gastronomic outlets and help them settle in the city. Monthly rents (excluding utility bills) for business premises will be subsidised until the end of 2024.
"The start-up financing is intended to make the initial phase of running a business in this location easier", said Karin Take, City Centre Project Manager at Bremeninvest. According to Take, who is an expert in inner city development, "the wealth of features offered by the "Kreativ- und Innovationskontor" co-working space not only attracts new entrepreneurs but also brings new target groups into the city centre, a place which many people in Bremen previously regarded as uninspiring". Karin Take also hopes that this new strategy will attract more companies with similar target groups to relocate: "This would strengthen both the location and the range of things on offer". In particular, childcare provision or networking events can create new synergies that will have a positive effect on the location as a whole."
This support for relocation is part of the Federal "Zukunftsfähige Innenstädte und Zentren" (ZIZ: Sustainable Inner Cities and City Centres) programme which is being implemented on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban development (BMWSB) by the Bundesinstitut für Bau-, Stadt- und Raumforschung (BBSR) (German Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development). "Of course, the "Kreativ- und Innovationskontor" co-working space concept should also fund itself, which is why the start-up funding from the City-UpTrade programme is such a great help to us", said Stehnken.
Café under starter's orders
From the end of September, there will be yet another good reason for city centre visitors to come to the am Wall location. "Farsø", a contemporary café concept, will open its doors on the building's ground floor, providing indoor and outdoor space for guests to work and enjoy their coffee at the same time.
The owner, Tim Stern, has already had an impressive career in the hospitality sector: together with Carmen Schröder, he's managed the Stora Coffee café in Bremen's Neustadt district and also the Concordia in Schwachhausen. Stern promises his new venture will be a place where everyone can feel at home. The focus is on breakfast, lunch and specialty coffee: "We have really great coffee, roasted right here in the region", said Stern proudly. "Farsø" is also where networking events will be held on the penultimate Thursday in the month. As Arne Stehnken said, "It's after-work networking in a prime location". The next meeting will be held on September 19th, 2024, from 17:00.
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