Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences is set to expand thanks to the Starterzentrum Dieprahm GmbH. Students and teaching staff are due to start using the premises of the listed warehouse building next to the Kamp-Lintfort campus as early as summer 2016.
Kleve/Kamp-Lintfort, 25 June 2015: Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences continues to thrive. Around 1,500 young people are currently studying in Kamp-Lintfort. “The new campus in the heart of the city is a great asset, but even here we are slowly reaching our limits,” explains University President Dr Heide Naderer. To date, the Faculty of Communication and Environment has continued to use the premises in the former Telekom building on Südstraße. For organisational reasons, however, this involves a certain amount of effort for both teaching staff and students: the laboratories on campus and the seminar rooms on Südstraße are located separately from one another. Additional rooms close to both the campus and the town centre would therefore ensure that teaching runs even more smoothly.
A wish that is set to come true: RAG Montan Immobilien GmbH is seeking a new use for its listed buildings on Friedrich-Heinrich-Allee. This also applies to the warehouse building. Previously used in parts by the mine administration, the building offers considerable scope for a cost-effective conversion. Its proximity to the campus is ideal, making Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences the perfect tenant. Dieter Tenhaeff agrees. The business development officer for the town of Kamp-Lintfort is the managing director of Starter-Zentrum Dieprahm GmbH. The company is owned by the town of Kamp-Lintfort and the Institute for Mobile and Satellite Radio Technology (IMST GmbH). Since 2000, the business start-up centre in the Dieprahm Technology Park has been providing technology-oriented start-ups with affordable office space for up to five years – and with great success. “We have established ourselves well in the market over the past few years and are currently operating at 100 per cent capacity,” says Tenhaeff happily.
So this is a good time to expand the business. The Start-up Centre plans to purchase the warehouse building, refurbish it and then let it to Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences. Students and teaching staff are set to start using the new premises as early as summer 2016. “Universities are a key driver of the regional economy. Spin-offs and start-ups are the best examples of this. That is why high-quality teaching and research also require good facilities,” says Mayor Prof. Dr Christoph Landscheidt, explaining the municipal subsidiary’s commitment. The council also endorsed this reasoning at its meeting yesterday (23 June) and backed the proposal put forward by Starter-Zentrum Dieprahm GmbH.
