St. Pölten city center

Exchange of blows over kissing the city center awake

See the city as "healthy": City boss Matthias Stadler, Lukas Stefan from the Business Service, Matthias Weiländer from City Marketing (from right)

(Bild: Arman Kalteis)

Politicians in the provincial capital have discovered a new bone of contention. This time it's about the city center. While the ÖVP deems it necessary to kiss the city center awake, the SPÖ considers it to be a lively place anyway.

The ÖVP has put together a "strengthening package" in St. Pölten to save the city center. The ruling Social Democrats probably see this as unnecessary. Because shortly before the expected exchange of blows in the municipal council meeting on Monday, the comrades countered with their own figures from location analyses

In the top league
With a low vacancy rate of 2.7 percent, the state capital is in the top league nationwide, with only Mödling, Feldkirch (Vlbg.) and Vienna's Favoritenstraße ranking higher. "Krems and Amstetten, on the other hand, have 5.4 percent, Wiener Neustadt even 10.1 percent," according to the town hall.

Curse of the Leiner closure
The fact that around 28 percent of retail space in the city center has been lost over the past ten years is "largely" due to the closure of the Leiner store on Rathausplatz. The conclusion: "The development of retail space in the city center has been almost stable since then." 1.7 percent would be lost annually: "That is well below the average value of 3.1 percent observed in cities."

The vacant Leiner flagship store on Rathausplatz

(Bild: Molnar Attila)

Fashion dominates
In terms of the branch mix, gastronomy is below average in St. Pölten's city center, while fashion is more dominant. "Customer frequency is increasing at a high level," it says. In one week in September 2023, there were 662,865 passers-by - 9.3 percent more than in the previous year.

The ÖVP proposal to reallocate money from municipal operations to the city center is not legally possible. This is because the use of any surplus fees is earmarked for a specific purpose.

Harald Ludwig (SPÖ), Vizebürgermeister von St. Pölten

Bild: SPÖ

"St. Pölten is a healthy city"
The investments made by the provincial capital in the city center are also impressive, argue the Social Democrats. Over the past ten years, more than 12 million euros have been spent on construction measures in the pedestrian zones. Marketing costs 300,000 euros a year. The SPÖ draws the following conclusion from all this data: "St. Pölten is one of the healthy cities with upward potential in the city rating."