The plan to settle innovative companies on the huge brownfield site, which Offenbach was finally able to buy from the Swiss chemical company Clariant in 2019 after years of negotiations, sounded plausible from the start.
How else should the city, which has become impoverished to the point of being in need of supplies due to the decline of old industries, ever recover economically?
There is no other chance for the city than the strategy promoted above all by Mayor Felix Schwenke.
But nobody - not even Schwenke - expected that the city would have successfully marketed three quarters of the area barely three years after the purchase.
Awarded to companies such as Samson and Biospring, both of which are among the international leaders in their respective fields.
Offenbach does a lot right
Of course, luck is also part of such success.
But the fact that Biospring did a lot of follow-up and quadrupled the total area so shortly after buying the first piece of land on the innovation campus proves that Offenbach is doing a lot right when it comes to company settlement.
Of course, it's not just the merit of Schwenke, but that of a team of committed people such as Daniela Matha, who is responsible for the real estate division at Stadtwerke and has already successfully marketed the Offenbach port with great commitment.
The fact that the city is repeatedly praised by companies for its problem-solving skills and lean processes is certainly not just niceness.
There is no question that the city made the right decision to buy the former industrial wasteland in the east three years ago for 6.95 million euros.
Even the costs for the disposal of the contaminated sites, which cannot yet be precisely quantified, do not change this.
In any case, the innovation campus is already a great asset for the long-suffering Offenbach.