Good practice:

Arbeitsgemeinschaft City e.V.

Arbeitsgemeinschaft City e.V. (short AG City) was founded in 1976 to address the need to promote and develop the then isolated (West) Berlin’s town centre around its two main streets, Kurfürstendamm and Tauentzienstrasse.. Its main aims are: bring together a large variety of players in the town centre; improve the location’s quality and profile; market the location as an international destination; and act as speaker for the interests of local organisations. The association has been growing steadily since and counts over 500 members today from the fields of retail, culture & tourism, services, real estates and hotels. It organises regular member meetings and public events, operating in three main fields: retail, culture & tourism and urban development. Its two subsidiaries, City Dienst GmbH – a limited corporation – and the BID Ku’damm-Tauentzien perform specialised tasks. The threefold structure takes advantage of German legislation, in order to be able to channel money from private donors towards different tasks. The association is currently working on a development vision and masterplan for the area through a team or independent planners and place management experts (“Werkstattforum”). Its events include a Christmas market, the “Summer in the city” festival and several seasonal markets. The BID is currently working to improve the quality of public space.

The association only raises money from its members. Its subsidiary City Dienst GmbH receives donations from private sponsors and its subsidiary BID Ku’damm-Tauentzien receives a yearly levy from property owners. It employs 3 full-time staff and is governed by a board of 9 members.

The success of the practice is currently measured upon: steady growth in the number of members; high participation rates in internal meetings; high visibility of and participation at public events; successful lobbying with the state to introduce BID legislation; establishment of first BID in Berlin. The BID evaluation process is currently under development.

The main challenge has been the communication and collaboration with the authorities. Currently the BID is also facing a challenge as it needs to evaluate and assess its progress.

The following features of the practice can be interesting for other regions:
- Mix of partners, i.e. not only retail businesses, but a broad variety of players;
- Full-time staff; practice has shown that voluntary work alone is not enough;
- Focus on quality of services rather than quantity of offers;
- Threefold structure (association, limited co., BID) covering different legislation and allowing for different types of funding;
- Broad field of action: retail; tourism & culture; urban development;
- International networking.