1. Online: The management team for the town center built a website where entrepreneurs could create content to promote their shops and offer useful information. The city created free WiFi in the city center 2. Public space: The city council invested in improving the quality of public space by adding more green areas, improving streets and providing subsidies for facades. 3. Real‐estate: The municipality is organizing ‘matchmaking’ sessions between new entrepreneurs/retailers and real estate owners to find new tenants. The municipality also invests in making empty shop windows more attractive.
4. Housing: The municipality has an active policy to transform empty stores and offices into housing and to relocate existing stores to the heart of the center.
7. Monitoring: The center management and Philips have invested in monitoring the impact of all these changes over a period of two years.
5. Parking: The municipality has established free parking for a large part of the city center.
8. Dynamic lighting and sound: The center offers a mix of retail, hospitality and events but also an interactive, multimodal public space with lighting, sound and green spaces that can support themes, events and activities in the city center.
6. Qualitative growth: The center management and the municipality have chosen to concentrate on qualitative growth and to target specific entrepreneurs and events to further strengthen the image of the city.
© Frank van Beek
Architectural lighting can animate the streets of Veghel with dynamic lighting patterns and sound effects
Left: The pilot project in 2013 in one of the alleys between a parking and a shopping streets was successful: 22 new or renewed stores opened.
URBAN LIGHTING 41