While people in Dortmund and Duisburg are still working on large
plans to do with shopping centres, people in Bochum have quietly
got on with the job. And the result has been on view since
October: the new Ruhrpark Centre on the B1 motorway.


At the opening ceremonies from 4th to 7th October the Ruhrpark,
extended to 127,000 sq.m. and freshly renovated, presented its new
emphasis - shopping and feasting, leisure and fitness. The Ruhrpark
is the biggest and best!! In comparison, the not very distant CentrO in
Oberhausen has a sales area of about 80,000 sq.m. A look at the
past:: When the Rihrpark was opened in 1964 it was roughly 24,000
sq.m., just over one fifth of today’s sales area; the renowned shops
already on the scene in those days were C & A, Quelle, Woolworth,
Heinen Brillen and Tchibo.


The idea of building a shopping centre, revolutionary at that time –
and not even in the centre of town, either – came from the American
investor Edward E. Roberts. Until 1978 the Centre in the Harpen
area of Bochum remained Roberts’ property, but then it was sold

to a closed-end property fund belonging to the Westdeutschen
ImmobilienBank (West German Property Bank).


Successful shopping is now offered not only by the „old“

shops, of
course, but also by the many new ones: Modehaus Baltz, New Yorker,
Lindex, Buch Habel and Görtz – a total of 7,200 square metres. But the
absolute novum is the „Via Bartolo“, the 3,500 sq.m. gourmet mile with
Italian flair, which links the old and the new malls together. But since
shopping and feasting isn’t everything, the new Ruhrpark also provides
fitness with the health-oriented „

Station One“

and leisure with the
Internetcafé, billiards und games.
The UCI cinema also has a direct entrance in the new mall.
The EHI will report in depth on the Bochum Ruhrpark under the subject
„

Revitalization/Extensions“

in its „

Shopping Centre Report – New Openings
2001“, appearing in the spring of 2002. Until then Rainer Pittroff from the
EHI (Tel.: 0221/57993-39) will be pleased to answer your questions.