New shops Changes in the city centre
Bonn · An animal welfare association is moving to the Viktoriakarree and the former site of McDonald’s on Marktplatz has a new tenant – here is an overview of the changes in Bonn’s city centre.
The Christmas tree has gone up in front of the old town hall and fairy lights decorate the pedestrian zone - Christmas trading can begin. Those who have not been shopping in the city for a while will notice some transformations. Things are changing again at the Viktoriakarree: The Albert-Schweitzer-Tierheim (animal rescue centre) is moving in with its flea market to support animal welfare. There is also a lot going on around the Marktplatz. Reconstruction works are taking place at the site where McDonalds sold fries and burgers for 24 years up to the beginning of this year. A sign on the entrance door announces that a new kebab shop is about to open.
Still locked up nearby are the doors and shop windows of the small dry cleaners, which provided fresh and ironed laundry for decades and closed some time ago. It is not known who will move in there. Opposite, not far from Wenzelgasse, the fashion chain Gerry Weber has started a clearance sale. The store only opened five years ago. Why it closed and who would be the next tenant could not be found out. The shop of a former boutique on Sternstrasse was empty for a long time and found a new tenant seven weeks ago. The company Trinitae that runs another shop in the former Haus der Blumen on the corner of Friedrichstrasse/Belderberg is now also selling skin care products on Sternstrasse.
Still locked up nearby are the doors and shop windows of the small dry cleaners, which provided fresh and ironed laundry for decades and closed some time ago. It is not known who will move in there. Opposite, not far from Wenzelgasse, the fashion chain Gerry Weber has started a clearance sale. The store only opened five years ago. Why it closed and who would be the next tenant could not be found out. The shop of a former boutique on Sternstrasse was empty for a long time and found a new tenant seven weeks ago. The company Trinitae that runs another shop in the former Haus der Blumen on the corner of Friedrichstrasse/Belderberg is now also selling skin care products on Sternstrasse.
Animal welfare at the Viktoriakarree
The Beate-Uhse store on Bischofsplatz has been closed for some time, but now the premises are ready for renting. Armed with a cleaning bucket and a scrubbing brush, volunteers of the Bonn Animal Welfare Association (Bonner Tierschutzverein) are currently working at a site at the Viktoriakarree. The shop on Rathausgasse had previously housed the Bürgerwerkstatt (citizens' workshop) for the Viktoriakarree. Now Barbara Töpfer, president of the Animal Welfare Association, is happy that the owner, the Austrian investor Signa, has made the shop available at an acceptable rent for selling flea market items to support the animal shelter. "I had been looking for new premises for our flea market for a long time," says Töpfer, "because the previous shop in the passage on Kasernenstraße had become unbearable for the volunteers.
The rental contract initially runs for one year. To the regret of Barbara Töpfer and the volunteers, the new shop windows that replaced the old scratched windows are already covered in graffiti. People have often spent the night in the building entrance and dirtied the floor and walls. "I hope that this will stop once we have moved in and out of respect for our work," says Töpfer. As reported, Signa wanted to build a shopping centre at the Viktoriakarree but a public petition put a stop to these plans.
(Original text: Lisa Inhoffen, Translation: Caroline Kusch)
