30 Nov Goodbye tobacco factory!
Since 2012, I have been able to develop Tabakfabrik Linz in its new use. In the spirit of the innovation cycle, I am handing over a leased-out area in the profit zone two years before the end of the contract and giving myself a “new life” as an entrepreneur, consultant, lecturer, author and traveler.
After 4,135 days in the service of Tabakfabrik Linz, I will be leaving the municipal development and operating company on April 30, 2023 and celebrating the “Day of New Work” on May 1. I am thus handing over an economically viable, fully leased area that has gained an international reputation and has attracted more than 2.5 million visitors to date through new event formats.
Together with my team, we have proven that a brownfield site can be transformed into an international best-practice example – with the additional challenges of its inner-city location and listed building status.
Acquired by the city of Linz after the closure of cigarette production in 2009, the former “Tschickbude” has been transformed in recent years into a creative and educational campus, a hub for innovation, IT, digitalization and start-ups, which is also considered a flagship for the revitalization of listed architecture. With blockbuster exhibitions such as “Tutankhamun”, “Titanic”, “Body Worlds” and “The Mystery of Banksy”, the area was opened to the public and attracted many visitors from all over Austria. In 2015, the event rooms were converted into a warming shelter for refugees at short notice and with the help of the local population.
Open due to renovation - handed over due to full occupancy
The success can also be measured in figures: In combination with the Quadrill new-build project, which started a long time ago, around 5,000 people will have access to a job at the Tabakfabrik site in 2025. 500 of them will also live on Peter-Behrens-Platz. Currently, around 3,000 people from 250 organizations, companies and associations have access to a job in the fully rented Tabakfabrik Linz, whose development and operating company is already making a profit.
The reasons for the orderly and amicable departure two years before the end of my contract are the goals achieved in the transformation of the site, natural innovation dynamics, personal principles and private matters as well as the knowledge of my own transience and the resulting thirst for adventure. Those who take innovation seriously and understand Tabakfabrik properly will move on and hand over functions when the time is right.
Part of Tabakfabrik’s recipe for success was certainly the consistent focus on a diverse settlement strategy based on a synergetic mix. Preference was not given to wealthy tenants, but to those who were the best fit.
In addition, the concept not only responds to current trends, but also focuses on sustainability. This does not just mean the more than 100 trees that have been planted on the site. Thanks to the educational opportunities offered by the University of Art (Fashion & Technology, Creative Robotics and Tangible Music Lab), the Fadinger-Gymnasium (robotics and digitalization), the Evangelisches Oberstufenrealgymnasium ROSE (digital humanism) and the VALIE EXPORT Center Linz, Tabakfabrik is training the skilled workers of tomorrow.
284 people worked at Tabakfabrik Linz at the end of cigarette production before it was finally closed by JTI in 2009. It was therefore important for the urban development of Linz to buy back the site and reopen it. An effort that has paid off. The total investment made in the site amounts to around EUR 250 million.
