Limbecker Straße in Essen: other shops withdraw

Trade means change, but what’s happening at Limbecker Strasse is probably the biggest change in quite some time. Again two shops leave the shopping street. Next Saturday is the last day of the Jysk sale. The furnishing store at the top end of Limbecker Strasse is closing. A spokesperson confirmed this upon request. Until a few years ago, Zisk was still called Dänisches Bettenlager. The store on Limbecker Straße has been around since 2018 – just five years.

The reasons for the withdrawal are sobering, but describe a long-standing problem on the street: “Unfortunately, the location was not as profitable as we had hoped,” a spokeswoman said. Additionally, the region is not ideal for “optimal execution of Jysk’s existing store positioning concept.” After all, employees will be relocated and jobs will not be lost.

Lots of vacancies in upper Limbecker Strasse

It is not known if the store already has a successor. However, if it comes to a vacancy on the site, it will hit the currently struggling Limbecker Straße section anyway. With the closure of H&M, the exit of Zara, the bankruptcy of Korts and Böhmer and the long-abandoned Sportscheck, the vacancy rate in the sector has increased alarmingly.

At the lower end of the street, the city was able to reduce vacancies at least to a large extent with the help of grants. However, the support program supports retailers for a maximum of two years. It will be completed by the end of this year. Now it turns out that not everyone can continue without subsidized rent. The strike is the second store that opened almost two years ago, so once again Limbecker will leave Strasse. Ended at the end of July.

“We couldn’t have paid more rent than before,” says Strike managing director Daniel Bayan. For a start, you cannot have an uneconomical store. Over the past couple of years, it has become clear that the Strike Concept can only sustain itself if the sales area is high and the rent is cheap.

Dealers pay only 20 percent of the original rent

Like other advertised dealers, Strike has paid only 20 percent of the original rent in the last two years. The landlord must reduce it by 30 percent. However, the majority, about 50 percent, came from the city and state. Attractive rents attracted a strike to the main shopping street two years ago. Before that, the company sold its second-hand clothes at the Verbraucherreform store on Kobstadtplatz.

The government has linked the funding with the hope that new ideas will settle in the inner cities affected by the corona in the long run. Not so with Strike. Several months ago, it became clear that rent negotiations between the strike and the owner would be difficult. The store has been given some time to be allowed back online on Immoscout. After all, there is already a new tenant who signed the lease on August 1, as confirmed by appointed brokerage Eugen Lehmkühler. However, it does not come from the retail sector but from the service sector.

Shop rents on Limbeker have fallen

In addition to the strike, the state and the city are currently helping half a dozen traders in Limbekar. In the last two years, the highly subsidized rents have at least forced landlords to reduce their shop rents, which were very high until then. However, this has its limitations, as the strike shows.

L’italiano’s shop is currently for rent on Immoscout. Looking to launch a high-end fashion store? It also benefits only from subsidized rent till the end of the year. What after that? Owner Fernando Caniglia made no secret that months of negotiations with the landlord were not easy. “But we have reached an agreement,” says Caniglia. Only the signature is not there yet. In general, the entrepreneur still feels that Limbecker’s rent levels are too high. “That’s why the street is the way it is,” Caniglia criticizes.

More about the funding scheme at Limbeker

In addition to Strike and Laitaliano, the following stores have received or are receiving support: Outlet, Lindt, Me Living, Think Twice, Pretty Flowers and Diagonal Shop. Top chocolatier Lindt extended its lease by a year this spring. “Think Twice” and Diakonie have already agreed with landlords on extensions beyond the funding period. The fashion store outlet is also set to extend its lease after the subsidy expires.

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