It is doubtful whether they will ever bring the name “Westside Frankfurt” to their lips.
In terms of content, however, the neighbors should like what the project development company Beos AG announced for the Griesheim industrial park on Wednesday: the walls and fences around the 102 football pitch area are falling, cycle paths and bus lines lead through the previously closed area - the Main bank in front of it will be open to the public.
But above all: the work returns to Stroofstrasse.
In a few years, thousands of people are expected to work in new and reconstructed buildings from the former chemical works.
Inga Janovic
Editor in the regional section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and responsible editor of the business magazine Metropol.
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This is good news for the economy in Frankfurt and far beyond: After years of tightness and the struggle for additional commercial space, a total of 73 hectares of space will soon be available in the Main metropolis.
According to the ideas of the real estate developer belonging to Swiss Life Holding, manufacturing industry, service companies or technology-heavy start-ups can find their place there.
"Everyone is welcome," says a spokeswoman for Beos AG.
The Berlin-based company leased the site from the chemical group Clariant for the next 99 years in 2019 and now wants to invest at least one billion euros in the new beginning.
"This is a huge opportunity for the city and the district, it will further strengthen the business location," praised Frankfurt's planning department head Mike Josef (SPD).
His colleague Stephanie Wüst (FDP), who is responsible for business, emphasized that the industrial park, which has been almost completely shut down for a good three years, is “the largest and the fastest to be activated” commercial area in Frankfurt for the foreseeable future.
With the conversion, a considerable part of the demand for space from the economy can be met.
According to Wüst, the total requirement is 140 hectares.
She also used her greeting to representatives of Beos and the city, architects and investors for this appeal: "Please don't forget our traditional Frankfurt companies, some of which are looking for growth prospects."
Griesheim Alps remain untouchable
It has not yet been decided which sectors will come into play in Griesheim, and the city and investors, who have been negotiating with each other for months, have not yet gotten beyond preliminary planning.
For this purpose, Beos consulted the architects Albert Speer + Partner and KSP Engel, among others.
They propose structuring and developing the area from west to east in such a way that the largest buildings, such as factories, are built in the highest direction and the development then becomes smaller and smaller in the direction of Griesheim.
We are talking about a large-medium-small classification.
There should be open spaces between the buildings, which are already beautifully painted on the project website that has just been activated with names such as "Place at the pipeline system" or "Place at the old loading crane".
Gastronomy and leisure facilities are also planned for these.
The planners want to preserve a number of relics from 160 years of industrial history, including cranes and the imposing pipeline systems.
Ten old factory buildings are also not to be demolished, but renovated and redesigned.
For example, a fairly high access building to tank farms could soon become a gym with a climbing hall.
The architects already envision an Alessa production hall, in which old tanks and pipes with a thick layer of dust can still be seen today, as an event location with industrial charm.
The so-called Griesheim Alps, the towering landfill, under whose green plant cover toxic chemical waste is stored, must remain untouchable and must remain fenced off.
The high-rise bioreactors on the banks of the Main will also remain standing, but the banks are to be opened up all around.
The term New Work was mentioned several times during the tour of the site.
From this it can be deduced that investors tend to be less prepared for potentially dusty or noisy industrial companies.
This is also supported by the fact that they are marketing the industrial park under the new name "Westside Frankfurt".
This is a "timeless, bold brand, clear, international," enthused Beos board member Holger Matheis on Wednesday.
With this project, the west of Frankfurt will once again have a clear image, which it lost after the end of Höchst AG.
Matheis promised that Beos would coordinate closely with the district and the city during further planning and would be "highly sensitive to the building fabric and the history of the town".
In this context, of course, the promise of sustainability could not be missing.
First halls demolished
In order to fulfill this, the investors had their plans certified in advance by the German Sustainable Building Council.
And at least one industry has already been identified that the planners want to relocate to the site: data centers.
According to a spokesman, two of the large building areas are intended for this purpose.
"We won't overdo it with the data centers, but they are important for our energy concept," he explained.
This envisages heating the entire area with waste heat and completely dispensing with fossil primary energy, at least when generating heat.
How quickly the change becomes visible depends on the progress of negotiations with the city and, of course, on letting.
Workers are already in the process of gutting buildings and dismantling old facilities, and the first halls have been demolished in the north towards Lärchenstraße.
There are no precise forecasts yet, but according to the company spokesman, in three to five years the change should be so advanced that at least parts of the area will be open to the neighborhood.