Kempten - "It's not just about sales": After 18 months, City Management Kempten was again able to hold an annual general meeting in attendance.
As the meeting place, those responsible had chosen the JuFa family department not far from the Cambomares and the DAV climbing center.
There was space for around 45 visitors.
Members, guests and the press were welcomed by the 1st chairman of City Management Kempten (CMK) eV Dietmar Wolz, who runs the train station pharmacy and the PurNatur natural food & organic bistro on Kottener Straße.
Mayor Thomas Kiechle appeared as the highest representative of the city.
In addition, some city councilors from various parliamentary groups as well as the Sparkasse board member Manfred Hegedüs were among the guests.
The look ahead
"We would have liked a quicker solution to the precarious situation of the retail trade in our city, because we have always seen ourselves as part of the solution," said Chairman Wolz at the beginning of his welcoming speech, but added that things looked back on unchangeable and the CMK is now looking to the future with confidence and vigor.
"What seemed unchangeable before the crisis is now feasible and we should tackle things now and get things moving," said the chairman's credo.
With the words "We want to bring joy into the city", Wolz summarized the attitude of the fully assembled board.
In the future, it will not only be about sales, but also about understanding the city center as an experience location and developing it further together with partners.
View of the Christmas market and Kempten shopping night
In his welcoming address, Mayor Thomas Kiechle spoke of an unprecedented crisis that posed great challenges for everyone.
"A lot was not possible during the crisis, so I am all the more pleased that, under improved conditions, a lot is now possible again." He promised that both the shopping night and the Christmas market will take place this year, albeit under different conditions.
He has great hopes for the further development of the inner city, which he justified with the planned construction of a new city library and the renovation of the savings bank district.
Successful review
Afterwards, the CMK branch manager Niklasringenisen spoke to the guests of the evening.
At the beginning he introduced the two new City Management employees, on the one hand the event and project manager Helen Fischer, on the other hand the marketing and project manager Moritz Dornbusch.
Ringsisen presented an outline of the activities of the CMK that had been possible during the crisis.
The well-known days of action of the CMK and the city festival could not take place in 2020 and 2021, but the CMK had tried to use smaller, decentralized formats to use the city center and, despite difficult times, bring frequency between Mühlbachquartier and August-Fischer-Platz.
Ringsisen spoke about the Christmas lighting projects, Schexs in the City, the encouragement campaign, the image campaign “Acting together”, neighborhood and vacancy management as well as social projects such as “Das Allgäu gets it”.
Shopping with music
In cooperation with the city, the theater in Kempten and the trade fair and event operations of the city of Kempten, the CMK co-organized the “City Summer Kempten” this year.
On five days of action, the CMK brought live music and a good atmosphere to the city center under the motto “Music Summer”, thus making the shopping experience in the Allgäu metropolis more attractive again, taking into account the prescribed hygiene concepts.
Political issues of the time, such as the planned construction of a retail park on Ulmer Strasse and the establishment of a logistics center for the online giant Amazon in Memmingen, were also clearly expressed and advocated for owner-supported retail.
"We are the lawyer for downtown Kempten," said Ringsisen.
The CMK is also currently involved in the “Strong Centers” project of the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, together with the Modul 5 agency from Vienna, to develop concepts for further revitalizing the city center with a mix of retail, gastronomy, culture, improved public transport and the settlement of small businesses bring to.
An information day had recently been held at the residence with the Office for Economy and City Development.
Megaseller Schexs
A well-known city management project was even able to benefit unduly from the crisis.
Sales of the popular Schex in the City shopping voucher rose 67 percent in 2020 to 395,000 units.
A record result, which also proves the loyalty of the Allgäu to the city center of Kempten.
After looking back on the past year and a half, we moved on to the next items on the agenda, the report of the treasurer Annette Pickert, the report of the auditor in the person of Gerhard Juli and the discharge of the board of directors.
For 2020, income of 288,200 euros and expenses of 296,600 euros resulted in a balance of -8,400 euros.
For 2020 there was an asset surplus of 64,800 euros.
City Management: Change in the board
Auditor Gerhard Juli attested that the treasurer's report had done a solid job and recommended that the voters discharge the board of directors.
This happened without dissenting or abstaining.
The draft budget for the current year 2021 was also approved by the voters without a dissenting vote.
At the end of the day, a new personality was announced: Enrico Baumbach, Managing Director Mode Reischmann, is leaving the board and is being replaced by a familiar face: Marc Weizenhofer, who was already a member of the CMK board, is returning to his old place of work with new ideas.
It was important to the first chairman, Dietmar Wolz, to thank the city of Kempten for their financial commitment to city management.
You take over the personnel costs and thus ensure more financial and creative freedom.
This is what treasurer Annette Pickert had previously emphasized.