Guidelines for Commercial Land Development

To flexibly meet local demand for expansions and relocations, all municipalities should have a reserve of available commercial land with a legally binding zoning plan that is sufficient for at least five years. The primary target groups and site types here are skilled trades and (non-disruptive) commercial enterprises, as well as industry and manufacturing.

There is an increased need for land in municipalities designated as employment hubs in the Regional Spatial Planning Program (RROP), as these must not only meet the municipalities’ own needs but are also attractive for relocations within the region and for businesses from outside the region.

Key employment centers are located in the medium-sized centers of Barsinghausen, Burgdorf, Burgwedel, Garbsen, Laatzen, Langenhagen, Lehrte, Neustadt, Springe, and Wunstorf, as well as in Isernhagen/Kirchhorst, Wedemark/Berkhof, Wedemark/Gailhof, and in the regional center of the state capital, Hanover. 

For larger supraregional developments—in addition to land for municipal use and for expansion and relocation needs at the employment hubs—locations near highways are particularly needed, as they allow, for example, three-shift operations or nighttime truck transshipment. This primarily applies to the industrial/production and logistics site types.

In the region’s logistics land use plan, the Hannover Region defined standards as early as 2012 for so-called “key locations” and “supplementary locations” for large logistics developments.

Of the priority sites listed in the logistics land use plan, all plots at the Barsinghausen/Groß Munzel site have already been sold (including the e-mobility components plant for VW), and all plots at the Wunstorf-Süd/trimodal site have now also been marketed (including HAVI and Rudoph Logistik).

This also applies to most of the supplementary sites, such as Burgwedel/Großburgwedel (Fiege facility, Rossmann expansion), Garbsen-West (Amazon), Laatzen (Krauss Maffei), Lehrte/Aligse (ALDI food logistics center), and Wedemark/Berkhof (REWE logistics). As a result, there is currently insufficient capacity to accommodate large-scale commercial and logistics operations.

The transformation of the economy toward digitalization, changes in the world of work, and climate and resource protection pose new challenges for commercial land development and the urban planning of these sites:

• Office space and services are displacing or complementing, above all, inner-city production spaces. Existing properties are also increasingly being leased to startups and coworking spaces.
• Opportunities are emerging for lower-emission manufacturing facilities in integrated urban locations adjacent to office and residential areas.
• Public transportation access and local amenities are gaining importance as location factors.
• Proximity to research and technology transfer institutions is becoming even more important, especially for companies engaged in research and development.

Suitable locations for new types of low-emission businesses are found at the intersections between research institutions and office districts (e.g., Technology Park on the Garbsen Mechanical Engineering Campus, Hanover/Marienwerder Science Area 30X, Roderbruch/Medical Park, Hanover/University of Veterinary Medicine) as well as at office and service hubs (Bemerode/Stockholmer Straße, Expo-Park) or in mixed-use areas (e.g., Hanover-Nordstadt/Hafven, Hanover/Hanomag site).

The current supply of space—just under 9.0 ha across the five locations in Garbsen and Hanover ( Technology Park on the Garbsen Mechanical Engineering Campus, Hanover/Marienwerder Science Park Science Area 30X [three subplots], and Kirchrode)—must still be considered insufficient, despite slight increases in recent years.

On the one hand, it is essential to be able to offer suitable sites in the supraregional competition for major new research institutions; on the other hand, smaller-scale spaces for rental properties—such as those for the creative industries, startups, laboratory space, or coworking —are also needed (e.g., Hafven, Hanomag site).

Additional sites should be integrated into the urban fabric, with excellent public transportation connections and access to local amenities. Inner-city development areas (e.g., brownfields, existing commercial zones) may be more suitable for this purpose than “greenfield” sites. In addition to the city of Hanover, potential locations include Laatzen, Langenhagen, and Garbsen, and possibly also Isernhagen/Altwarmbüchen and Hemmingen-Westerfeld/Devese.

Not only the state capital of Hanover but also a number of surrounding municipalities have older industrial and commercial zones where the requirements for site location and infrastructure have changed: office uses and services are replacing manufacturing and industry; small plots for SMEs are replacing large industrial sites; and goods are transported by truck and car rather than by inland waterway vessels and freight trains.

These existing commercial areas are often characterized by vacancies, brownfields, inappropriate uses (e.g., scrap yards, car rental agencies, entertainment venues), and the encroachment of retail businesses. They offer the opportunity to establish non-disruptive commercial enterprises, service providers, local retail facilities, or mixed-use developments within these areas, thereby partially offsetting the consumption of open space caused by new designations.

On the one hand, this gives existing manufacturing facilities the opportunity to consolidate their operations at their current locations; on the other hand, it offers the chance to transform entire neighborhoods in traditional industrial and commercial areas through measures such as pollution control, new development, and rezoning. At the same time, against the backdrop of climate change, there is a need to place greater emphasis on biodiversity in both public and private spaces within existing neighborhoods and to support the businesses located there in their transition to sustainable and climate-neutral operations (green economy).

This applies both to measures on open spaces and transportation areas (such as insect-friendly greening, soil restoration, and rainwater infiltration) and to measures on or adjacent to commercial properties (e.g., insulation, photovoltaics, green roofs and facades, or—in production—primarily energy, material, and resource efficiency, as well as a circular economy).

Examples of infill development areas are located in the state capital of Hanover at Lister Damm/Am Listholze and in Lindener Hafen, as well as in the surrounding areas of Hemmingen/Westerfeld, Isernhagen/Altwarmbüchen, Isernhagen/HB, Lehrte/Burchardt-Retschy-Ring, and Wennigsen.

The revitalization of commercial brownfields with potential for commercial reuse is a special form of inner-city development. In the future, it makes sense to focus more strongly on the entire neighborhood during revitalization and to pursue an integrated approach that first conceptually assesses the risks and opportunities of reuse and then promotes tailored investment measures for implementation (e.g., interim acquisition, demolition, renovation) (see the REGIP funding program of the Region Hannover).

Corresponding conceptual and planning studies for urban development concepts were funded by the Hanover Region for the Ronnenberg/Weetzen sugar factory, the former steelworks site in Neustadt, and the VION site in Wunstorf, and are currently being implemented.

With regard to the land potential of brownfields, there has been a noticeable increase in fluctuations in the number of recorded sites in recent years. For example, the number of sites classified in this category fell by half—from 16 to eight—between 2019 and 2022, but then increased by two sites in 2023 and by four sites in 2024. Over the past year, the number of recorded brownfield sites decreased by one. In this process, sites already listed are repurposed and removed from the list, while other sites are added to the list through classification as brownfield sites.

The reduction in the number of brownfield sites is due to the fact that less contaminated properties are being repurposed for new (commercial) uses through redevelopment or rising land prices on the open real estate market.

Remaining brownfield sites, such as Deurag-Nerag in Hannover-Misburg, are characterized by particularly stringent land-use restrictions. Therefore, developments regarding a possible future for the Deurag-Nerag site are particularly welcome.