The public private partnership initiative „Going Down-Town“ was kicked-off in North Rhine Westphalia/Germany for the first time in 1999 by the regional government and the department store-chains Karstadt and Kaufhof. The initiative wants to link shopping, culture, living to revitalize the life in the city-centers.

In Ahlen

The annual competition activated 172 cities and communities to create between the years 2000 and 2008 a total of 588 concepts of which 193 got financial support for their transformation to reality. Also for 2009 the competition has 24 winners which get up to 60 percent of their concept-costs paid by the initiative. The rest of the costs has to be paid by the cities/communities and their local government or sponsors.