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Reuse radar

Essen

Essen's cadastre flags 103 buildings as unused or ruined — 60 large enough to map, a third of them the listed coking plant at Zollverein — and the city's office vacancy stands at 8.5%, about 273,000 m². The biggest single empty space is the former Karstadt head office in Schuir, which Galeria left in 2025, and the diocese is now offering a listed church in Frillendorf for new uses.
An empty building in Essen with homes, balconies and neighbours drawn onto it in ink
Vacant office space273,000 m²8.5% of the stock stands empty
Empty buildings on record224and 9 more with an empty shop, flat or floor; of all 233, 4 confirmed, 7 likely
Flagged unused60buildings in the official cadastre; 11 have 3,000 m² or more
Homes potential—not in the economic model’s office data yet

Office figures: BNP Paribas Real Estate, Essen office market Q2 2026 — vacancy about 273,000 m² (4% up on the year), rate 8.5%, fourth-highest of the large German markets; only 36,000 m² of it modern space. Map built 2026-10-09.

Essen city profileReuse atlas: all of Europe

The map

Every building a record says stands empty, one point per building: filter by type, size and how sure the evidence is, and open one to see who says so. “Opportunities” switches to the co-op lens: public land, conversion potential and projects already under way, every source as its own layer.

Loading map…

0 empty buildings · colour = type, dark ring = confirmed

Check any building in Essen: could it become homes, and could the EHC model work there?

Where to look first

Buildings with evidence that they stand empty — a second source agrees, a public record names them, or we have checked them — ranked by a score you can read: co-op scale, daylight depth, a station nearby, a zone that allows homes, affordable land and an open route in. Checked buildings carry their result; nobody has visited them on site yet. Leerstandsmelder reports join the list when they sit in a large non-residential building and a second source agrees.

PriorityBuildingFloor areaDepthStationConversion checkActions
75Kokereiallee
Flagged unused in the cadastre · Gebäude für Wirtschaft oder Gewerbe · 3 storeys · 1 other source nearby
7,470 m²4.2 m884 mA fit only
67Rathenaustraße 2–4, city centre — empty floors of a city property to be soldNot confirmed yetOnly as a partner
Public building named vacant
33,528 m²—88 m—
67Ringpromenade Zollverein
Flagged unused in the cadastre · Gebäude für Wirtschaft oder Gewerbe · 1 other source nearby
3,100 m²10.3 m1,077 mA fit only
66Verwaltungsgebäude an der Ruhrallee
Public building named vacant · Verwaltungsgebäude (1920; Anbauten 1950 und 1970) · 1 storey
4,800 m²17.5 m850 mA fit only
65Near Kokereiallee
Flagged unused in the cadastre · Gebäude für Wirtschaft oder Gewerbe · 2 other sources nearby
3,905 m²17.6 m836 mB fit only
57Near Ringpromenade Zollverein
Flagged unused in the cadastre · Gebäude für Wirtschaft oder Gewerbe · 2 other sources nearby
3,916 m²17.6 m1,039 mB fit only
55Kokereiallee 71
Flagged unused in the cadastre · Gebäude für Wirtschaft oder Gewerbe · 5 storeys · 1 other source nearby
6,328 m²24.3 m628 mA fit only
26Former Karstadt / Galeria head office, Schuir
Distressed or stranded (named)
25,075 m²67.2 m1,118 mC fit only

Districts where conversion makes sense

Where empty offices, the right zoning and a working neighbourhood come together — and what could go wrong.

A hand outlining a neighbourhood on a city map, with small houses drawn inside

Schuir and Bredeney — the old Karstadt head office

A four-building office complex Galeria left in September 2025, owned by a company in insolvency, next to a former police school the city is planning as a new quarter.

  • 690 Galeria staff moved to Düsseldorf on 1 Sep 2025
  • publity Theodor-Althoff-Straße 2 GmbH in insolvency proceedings
  • 'Norbertstraße/Beckmannsbusch (ehemalige Polizeischule)' in the city's current planning

Risk: Listed original building, part let to the state police; an insolvency sale may favour the highest bid.

2 sources

Stoppenberg and Katernberg — Zollverein

The densest cluster of buildings the cadastre flags unused in Essen: the coking plant of the Zollverein World Heritage Site, plus a church on offer in neighbouring Frillendorf.

  • About 20 of the 60 mapped flagged buildings lie on the Kokereiallee and Heinrich-Imig-Straße (cadastre, July 2026)
  • Hll. Schutzengel, Frillendorf: 8,600 m² church site offered by the parish (Oct 2026)

Risk: The coking-plant halls are industrial monuments run by a foundation; homes are not their intended use.

2 sources

Altendorf, Westviertel and Nordviertel — Krupp-Gürtel and Eltingviertel

The city's largest urban-development projects north and west of the centre, where former industrial land and older blocks are being replanned.

  • 'Krupp-Gürtel, Stadtentwicklungsprojekt' and 'Eltingviertel / Viehofer Platz' in the city's current planning
  • 'ESSEN 51: Zollstraße/Pferdebahnstraße' plan area in the Nordviertel

Risk: Mostly new-build plans; the existing buildings' state is not recorded.

1 source

Owners and routes in

Who controls the space, and what a housing cooperative can actually do with them.

A door key on a doorstep with a drawn path leading to an open door
Church property

Bistum Essen — ImmobilienRaum (the diocese's property development office)

The diocese publishes the churches and parish sites its parishes give up and sells them through expression-of-interest procedures that ask for use concepts. Hll. Schutzengel in Frillendorf is open now; register in the office's list of interested parties for the next Essen offer.

1 source
City agency

Stadt Essen — Amt für Stadtplanung und Bauordnung

The planning office publishes its 43 current planning projects with their stage. Projects on former public sites (the police school in Bredeney, the Borbeck swimming baths, the old post office in Werden) are where to ask for a co-operative plot or an existing building.

1 source

Signals to watch

Decisions, auctions and closures that change what becomes available, and when.

  1. 2026-07-28
    Cadastre flags 103 buildings unused or ruined

    The July 2026 edition of the NRW cadastre records 88 of Essen's 183,457 buildings as unused and 15 as ruined; 60 have a footprint of at least 150 m².

    1 source
  2. 2026-07
    Office vacancy at 8.5%

    About 273,000 m² of offices empty, 4% more than a year earlier; only 36,000 m² of it modern. Second-quarter take-up was just 18,000 m².

    1 source
  3. 2026-04-04
    The Bistum Essen has given up 131 churches since 2000

    More than any other Catholic diocese in Germany, out of about 360 churches and chapels in 2000; the Protestant Church in the Rhineland expects 30–50% of its buildings to leave church use.

    1 source
  4. 2026-02-11
    Essen still weighs a housing-protection bylaw

    Unlike Bonn, Dortmund or Düsseldorf, Essen has no bylaw against leaving homes empty or misusing them; an SPD motion asked for a data analysis and a re-assessment, scheduled for the council on 11 Feb 2026.

    1 source
  5. 2025-09-01
    Galeria leaves its Essen head office

    The department-store group moved its service centre with 690 staff to Düsseldorf, leaving most of the former Karstadt head office in Schuir empty.

    1 source

Sources and freshness

23 sources connected, 1 waiting for access. We only use data we may lawfully reuse; where a publisher blocks automated access we do not work around it — a person downloads it, or we ask for permission.

Show every source, its licence and when we last read it
SourceAccessRecordsStatusLicence
Federal property for sale (BImA)
Bundesanstalt für Immobilienaufgaben (BImA)
Live sales of federal buildings and land (the open API behind the BImA property search; rentals, garages and parking left out). A disposal is an open route in; it does not say the building stands empty.
Open API0Live
2026-10-09
No licence stated — public sale offers, credited to the BImA
Forced auctions of commercial property (zvg-portal)
Justizportal des Bundes und der Länder
Non-residential objects only; shown until the hearing date. Hamburg courts do not publish here.
Open API4Live
2026-10-09
Official public notice (§ 39 ZVG)
OpenStreetMap disused/abandoned tags and brownfields
OpenStreetMap contributors
Open API219Live
2026-10-09
ODbL 1.0 (© OpenStreetMap contributors)
Rail, S-Bahn and U-Bahn stations (OpenStreetMap)
OpenStreetMap contributors
Open APIscoringLive
2026-10-09
ODbL 1.0 (© OpenStreetMap contributors)
Building heights: GlobalBuildingAtlas (TU Munich)
Zhu, X. X., Chen, S., Zhang, F., Shi, Y., Wang, Y. (2025), Technical University of Munich
GlobalBuildingAtlas: an open global and complete dataset of building polygons, heights and LoD1 3D models. Earth System Science Data 17(12), 6647–6668, doi:10.5194/essd-17-6647-2025. Read from the Parquet copy on Source Cooperative. Satellite-derived heights (typically 1.5–3 m error in Europe), turned into storeys with storey heights fitted on Berlin; used only where no register or official 3D model sizes the building.
Open download35 buildings sizedLive
2026-10-09
CC BY-NC 4.0 (heights); footprints from OpenStreetMap and Microsoft: ODbL
Heights: 3D building models LoD2 (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Bezirksregierung Köln, Geobasis NRW
© Geobasis NRW (Datenlizenz Deutschland – Zero – Version 2.0). The models record no storeys, so the eaves height (lowest roof edge − ground, tallest part) is turned into storeys. Read per building from the state’s OGC API (CityJSON); the same model as the 1 km CityGML tiles on opengeodata.nrw.de. robots.txt: none on ogc-api.nrw.de (9 Oct 2026).
Open API526 buildings sizedLive
2026-10-09
Datenlizenz Deutschland – Zero 2.0
Road noise (EU Environmental Noise Directive, Lden)
European Environment Agency
Open APIscoringLive
2026-10-09
EEA standard re-use policy (attribution)
Leerstandsmelder.de — public reports of empty buildings
Leerstandsmelder (Gängeviertel e.V., Hamburg)
Shown while we ask Leerstandsmelder for permission. Reports since 2016 only, with the address, the month reported and a link to each entry; not checked by EHC. Each point says when a report has since been marked demolished, lived in, in interim use or rebuilt on Leerstandsmelder, and the owner type the reporter gave (private owners are never named).
Asking for permission42Live
2026-10-09
Credited to Leerstandsmelder.de; asking for permission
Open-ended property funds: buildings they report partly empty
Open-ended real-estate funds (each point names its fund and report)
German and Austrian open-ended public property funds must list every property with its vacancy (or letting) rate in their annual and half-year reports. scripts/reuse/import-fund-reports.ts reads those lists; properties at 10 % vacancy or more are shown, those at 25 % or more count as evidence.
Open download1Live
2026-10-09
Published fund report (KAGB / KARBV property list), cited per point
Co-working spaces, department stores, banks, hotels and cinemas listed as permanently closed
Overture Maps Foundation (closure data: BrightQuery company records)
Places with operating_status "permanently_closed" in the monthly Overture release, read by scripts/reuse/import-overture-closures.ts and matched to the building they sit in. A closed business is usually one unit; names are shown only for companies, never for sole traders.
Open download0Live
2026-10-09
CDLA Permissive 2.0 (Overture Maps Foundation)
Land without current use and stalled construction, mapped from satellite imagery (Copernicus Urban Atlas 2006–2018)
European Environment Agency — Copernicus Land Monitoring Service
Urban Atlas class 13400 (brownfields, demolition sites and gaps in the built-up area, 0.25 ha and up) compared across the 2006, 2012 and 2018 editions, so each plot says how long it has stood unused; plus construction sites (13300) already under way in 2012, and 2012 construction sites left unused by 2018. Read from the EEA's open ArcGIS services, the same way in every radar city. The 2021 edition (Copernicus Data Space) drops plots built on since 2018 where scripts/reuse/import-urban-atlas-2021.ts has been run. Points are context, never evidence of vacancy.
Open API35Live
2026-10-09
Copernicus open data (© European Union, Copernicus Land Monitoring Service 2006–2021, EEA)
Property companies in insolvency, at the property their purpose names
Insolvency courts (Insolvenzbekanntmachungen), structured by OpenRegister
Companies in preliminary or opened insolvency proceedings whose registered business purpose speaks of land or buildings (scripts/reuse/import-insolvencies.ts, OpenRegister API — the portal itself disallows automated access, so it is never fetched). A company is placed at the street its purpose names; the rest are leads in the admin. An insolvent owner signals a possible sale, not vacancy: weak evidence.
Open API0Live
2026-10-09
Official notices (§ 5 UrhG, source credited), via the OpenRegister API
Stalled construction and buildings held by insolvent developers
EHC research (dated press and court sources per point)
Signa, Adler/Consus and other developer insolvencies since 2022 and stalled sites, each with its latest dated status (src/scripts/data/reuse/stalled-projects.json; news leads from scripts/reuse/mine-news.ts are reviewed before they join).
EHC research0Live
2026-10-09
Cited publisher per point
Church buildings the dioceses and regional churches plan to give up
Catholic dioceses and Protestant regional churches (their building plans), via EHC research
Buildings a church body’s published building plan or recent reporting names as to be given up, without church funding, for sale or lease, or profaned (src/scripts/data/reuse/church-plans.json and brussels-churches.json).
EHC research0Live
2026-10-09
Cited publisher per point
Named buildings and sites from EHC research (each with its own source)
European Housing Coop research
EHC research6Live
2026-10-09
Facts cited to their publishers
Commercial listings (ImmoScout24 / immowelt)
Scout24 / AVIV
Blocked to automated access; we do not work around that. Request drafted in docs/reuse-radar/outreach/.
Asking for permission0PendingProprietary — API or data partnership requested
Year built and listing: OpenStreetMap building tags
OpenStreetMap contributors
start_date / construction_date and heritage / listed_status of the OpenStreetMap outline a record is matched to, where no register answers. Read with the outline match, not a separate query.
Open APIscoringLive
2026-10-09
ODbL 1.0 (© OpenStreetMap contributors)
Buildings the cadastre flags unused or ruined (ALKIS)
Geobasis NRW — Liegenschaftskataster (ALKIS Grundrissdaten, NAS)
Open download60Live
2026-10-09
dl-de/zero-2-0
Administration buildings in the cadastre (ALKIS)
Geobasis NRW — Liegenschaftskataster (ALKIS), OGC API Features 'lika'
Open API54Live
2026-10-09
dl-de/zero-2-0
Buildings for public purposes in the cadastre (ALKIS)
Geobasis NRW — Liegenschaftskataster (ALKIS), OGC API Features 'lika'
Open API25Live
2026-10-09
dl-de/zero-2-0
Office buildings mapped in OpenStreetMap
OpenStreetMap contributors (via overpass.openstreetmap.fr)
Open API658Live
2026-10-09
ODbL 1.0
Brownfield land mapped in OpenStreetMap
OpenStreetMap contributors (via overpass.openstreetmap.fr)
Open API64Live
2026-10-09
ODbL 1.0
Current planning projects of the City of Essen (Aktuelle Planung)
Stadt Essen — Amt für Stadtplanung und Bauordnung (FB 61), geo.essen.de 'Aktuelle_Planung'
Open API43Live
2026-10-09
dl-de/zero-2-0 (City of Essen open data, as for its other planning services on opendata.essen.de)
BLB NRW property offers: administration building, Ruhrallee 55 (sold vacant)
Bau- und Liegenschaftsbetrieb NRW (BLB NRW, State of North Rhine-Westphalia)
Open download1Live
2026-10-09
not stated — credited to the publisher (the page shows only a copyright line)

What this radar cannot see yet

  • No open list of empty city-owned buildings: the city's own open data and geoportal (geo.essen.de) publish administration sites and planning areas, not vacancy.
  • Council papers: the council information system (ris.essen.de, robots.txt disallows all) has an open OParl interface; the titles of the 5,309 papers changed since 2024 were mined on 8 Oct 2026 and few name empty buildings (Rathenaustraße 2–4, the old police headquarters). Older answers need a full-text search in the RIS.
  • The flag in the cadastre is strongest on industrial monuments (Zollverein); empty homes and shops barely show in it.
  • Floor area: the open cadastre has no storeys for Essen; the NRW 3D model gives heights (adapter still to write).

Know an empty building we have missed?

Open data cannot see everything. Tell us about a building in Essen that stands empty or barely used; once we have checked it, it joins the map under “Reported by visitors (checked)”.

A phone held up to photograph an empty shopfront, with a map pin drawn above it

We publish the address, the kind of building and your description once we have checked it — never your email. Please do not name the people who own or live in a building.

Radars nearby

The other radars in the same country and the nearest beyond. All 134 cities in the atlas

The figure on each card: empty buildings on record.

Amsterdam, Netherlands60empty buildings on recordAntwerp, Belgium305empty buildings on recordBerlin, Germany1,875empty buildings on recordBielefeld, Germany101empty buildings on recordBochum, Germany155empty buildings on recordBonn, Germany141empty buildings on recordBremen, Germany205empty buildings on recordCologne, Germany374empty buildings on recordDortmund, Germany304empty buildings on recordDresden, Germany341empty buildings on recordDuisburg, Germany141empty buildings on recordDüsseldorf, Germany46empty buildings on recordEindhoven, Netherlands3empty buildings on recordFrankfurt am Main, Germany208empty buildings on recordHamburg, Germany524empty buildings on recordHannover, Germany197empty buildings on recordLeipzig, Germany342empty buildings on recordMannheim, Germany82empty buildings on recordMunich, Germany316empty buildings on recordNuremberg, Germany109empty buildings on recordStuttgart, Germany175empty buildings on recordUtrecht, Netherlands13empty buildings on recordWuppertal, Germany224empty buildings on record