Wiesbaden (dpa/lhe) – 41 cities and municipalities in Hesse now have a total of 10 million euros available for projects in their inner cities. They had prevailed in the second tender for the state program “Future Inner City”, said Hesse’s Economics Minister Tarek Al-Wazir (Greens) on Monday. “The focus this time was on the creative use and design of inner-city interior and exterior spaces.” The municipalities include Hanau, Bensheim, Offenbach, Homberg (Efze), Rotenburg an der Fulda and Viernheim.
According to the ministry, 97 municipalities had submitted an application under the motto “Give space to the future of your inner city”. Each municipality could apply for a maximum budget of 300,000 euros and propose up to three projects. The selected municipalities had proposed 95 projects that they can now implement. “The range of funded projects shows impressively how diverse our inner cities and local centers can be actively designed and thus strengthened,” explained Al-Wazir. For example, projects would be funded that give space to new retail concepts by bringing together production, online shops and repairs in one place.