Location
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Gladbeck
a child- and family-friendly town
Gladbeck is ideally situated in the southern region of the Recklinghausen district, in close proximity to the key city of Essen, with direct links to the A2 and A31 autobahns, and via the B224 national road to the A52 autobahn. At the interface of the Metropole Ruhr and the Westphalian Münsterland regions, Gladbeck has the quality of life of a modern, vibrant town featuring ideal conditions for a central economic location. Gladbeck has been certified as a child- and family-friendly town and offers its 78,000 residents a diverse and convenient infrastructure on approximately 36 square kilometres, with extensive green recreation areas. Attractive building plots and residential areas, a wide range of shopping facilities, over 60 playgrounds and a large number of playing facilities in the city centre's pedestrian zones, a wide range of educational institutions, a diverse and attractive range of cultural, sports and leisure facilities and excellent social facilities make Gladbeck an attractive town for all age groups.Residential and construction areas
By developing and providing low-priced residential building areas, Gladbeck supports a highly socially motivated residential housing policy which aims at improving opportunities specifically for young families to buy their own homes and increase the proportion of privately owned housing. The ‘Guideline for Marketing Municipal Residential Building Areas’ was passed by the town council and outlines the criteria for the allocation of sites on the one hand, and a model for subsidised land prices on the other. This model is applied to specific building areas. Its cooperation project with private property owners allows the town to supply the Gladbeck property market with a large number of residential building areas in the next few years to cover the requirements of different population groups in terms of quantity and quality. For more information, please see the official Gladbeck website or visit the ‘Bau! Gladbeck’ exhibition, which takes place every autumn.
Culture and education
Gladbeck has been certified as a child- and family-friendly town and provides an extensive network of childcare and youth facilities and an excellent range of 15 primary schools, four secondary schools, three comprehensive schools, three grammar schools, one general school, one Waldorf school and two vocational and special education schools.
In addition, the University of Applied Sciences in Gelsenkirchen and the University of Duisburg-Essen are situated in close proximity.
Gladbeck features a wide range of municipal and private cultural initiatives, including a cultural centre near the town hall, featuring the NRW Ruhr District Literature Office, the Mathias Jakobs municipal hall and library, including a municipal cinema and an art school for young people, and the adult education centre. The municipal music school is Gladbeck's calling card, renowned beyond the town's borders, and the listed Zweckel machine workshop is a popular venue for art exhibitions and music events with a unique atmosphere.
The annual ‘Gladbeck total’ city festival at the beginning of May, the summer Jazzival at the Wittringen castle courtyard, and art and jazz at the town hall every December have supraregional appeal. The highlight among Gladbeck's festivals is the annual Appeltatenfest, one of the Ruhr district's oldest fairs, which attracts around 150,000 visitors to Gladbeck every first Sunday in September.
Sports and leisure
Gladbeck provides a diverse range of leisure facilities and local recreation areas, with around 600 hectares of municipally-owned public recreation areas. 180 hectares of these are landscaped parks and playgrounds, around 200 hectares municipal forests, and 200 hectares redesigned former slagheaps featuring walking paths. Gladbeck is a member of the Working Group of Bicycle-Friendly Cities and provides an exemplary network of cycle paths, which is intensively used and continues to be expanded. An indoor and an outdoor swimming pool and a large number of sports facilities offer a wide range of opportunities for active recreational activities.
More than 80 sports clubs have specialized in more than 50 sports, and Gladbeck features top regional swimming, athletics and triathlon training centres.
Due to Gladbeck's attractive sports facilities and the town's intensive cooperation with schools, clubs, the municipal sports association, municipal facilities, independent sponsors, sports associations and support groups, Gladbeck has been certified a ‘Sports-Compatible Town’ in a competition held by NRW's regional sports association.
Economy
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A business-friendly policy, based on active, cooperative business development, has contributed to a continuous optimization of Gladbeck's locational qualities and the promotion of the structural transformation of the former mining town, making its economic structure a successful mix of small, medium-sized and also a number of major businesses. Highly-skilled trades, services and innovative start-up businesses, as well as internationally renowned companies, have found an ideal location in Gladbeck.
Association for the promotion of Gladbeck's economy
A cornerstone of Gladbeck's cooperation-oriented business promotion culture is the close cooperation with the Verein zur Förderung der Gladbecker Wirtschaft e.V. association for the promotion of Gladbeck's economy (VGW), founded in 1992 by Gladbeck businesses to express their commitment to the promotion of structural change in the region.
To emphasize its commitment, the VGW has participated in launching the Wiesenbusch Gladbeck Innovation Centre (IWG) by taking over part of the operating company.
Wiesenbusch Gladbeck Innovation Centre
The Wiesenbusch Gladbeck Innovation Centre was launched more than 10 years ago near the A31 and A2 autobahn interchange and is an important economic promotion institution for companies during their start-up and development phases. In addition, the IWG has been certified a ‘NRW Centre of Excellence for Solar Thermal Applications and Heat Pump Technology’ as part of the regional ‘Renewable Energies’ initiative.
The Solar Cooling project has added a new pilot plant to the widely renowned demonstration pilot plant station at the IWG, featuring a solar-powered refrigeration engine.
The locational initiative, Germany - Land of Ideas, awarded the Innovation Centre the title of ‘Landmark 2006’.
Commercial properties
In addition to the Wiesenbusch Gladbeck Innovation Centre, the adjoining INNOVA-Park Wiesenbusch features ideal locations for business start-ups and small and medium-sized companies from the future-oriented technologies and product-oriented service sectors, with the recently developed Hegestraße commercial estate (west of the A31) focussing on companies in the new energies sector.
The former Mathias Stinnes 3/4 pit and the Gladbeck-Brauck business park in direct proximity to the A2 autobahn offer attractive commercial properties, a large number of which have already been taken up by new companies.