Humane affordable housing near the city centre

875,000 square metres of affordable housing are being created with humane building concepts: The buildings are attractively designed, sustainable and energy-saving in their construction, whether modern or in the classical architectural style. Rents are calculated in the same way as for subsidised housing and are even lower for particularly eligible groups - such as pensioners on the verge of old-age poverty or people on disability pensions.

The rental pricing for non-residential space is similarly socially oriented: Space on the Frankfurt Bridges is preferably and affordably rented to shops and businesses that make a positive contribution to society, for example with products from the region, special training programmes for their employees or special ecological standards, etc.

The interior, on the other hand, is decidedly plain and simple, though also planned with sustainability in mind.

In addition, they each have cooling ceilings in the attic, as they are often less shaded by surrounding buildings and thus more exposed to the sun.

Each building on the bridges is assigned a rental price

The 1.15 million square meters of building space that will be created on the bridges would have a market value of approximately 20,000 euros per square meter as of 2022 - not least due to the architecturally aesthetic design and the numerous gardens, balconies and terraces. Similar to penthouses in sought-after locations, bridge properties represent the cream of the crop in Frankfurt's real estate landscape. This would result in a total speculative value of the bridges of 23 billion euros. To ensure that the humane, social and environmentally oriented basic concept of the bridges is not thwarted, building permission for the Frankfurt Bridges should therefore only be granted if the rent structure and mode of calculation for affordabel housing and social rental parameters is fixed for 100 years from the date of approval.

The principle of proximity to the workplace is another rental criterion

Even if the increased home office culture has made many commutes superfluous, there are still presence occupations where employees have to commute into the city on a daily basis from affordable more distant residential areas: schools, hospitals, certain offices, care facilities, etc. need their employees live on site. Therefore, preference is given to renting to the low-paid among these employees, as well as to those who have to work night shifts.

Even though it is not subsidized housing in a government context, rent assessment on the Frankfurt Bridges still works on the same principle

The subsidized housing on the bridges is only available to tenants with proof of income. However, there is not only housing for extremely low-income groups, but about one third of the apartments are also intended for people with low to medium incomes who simply cannot afford an apartment close to the city centre.

Income serves as the basis of assessment for the initial rental and must be re-documented every two years to be adjusted with increases in income, if necessary. The rent adjustment is always made one year after the need for the increase has been determined, so that tenants have time to save money for a possible move in that year.

If, for example, a student couple lived in a 45 sqm two-room flat with a small garden area for 390 euros rent without and 485 with heating and ancillary costs, then this pricing was reasonable while they were still both studying: However, as soon as both complete their studies and find well-paid jobs, the affordable housing should become available for new tenants in need.

This is achieved by the reduced affordable rent actually being a discount rent: said 45sqm two-room apartment actually already has a rent of 1,125 euros without heating and other costs when rented, as would be the normal case for high-quality housing in Frankfurt city centre in 2022.  The two students will be granted a discount of 735 euros as long as they themselves have a low income. This discount will be successively reduced as their income increases. The aim is to ensure that people in need of affordable housing are always given a chance to rent an apartment on the bridges.

Renting conditions for business owners: commercial space can only be rented on the Frankfurt Bridges with a positive social contribution

Service providers and restaurateurs have hit the jackpot with space on the Frankfurt Bridges: They get premises that are optimally connected to all areas of the city by the bridgetrafficsystem, the buildings are all beautiful, most of the ground floors have terraces or garden space and the rents are still comparatively moderate.

The resulting profitability, however, does not end up entirely with the respective business owner pockets; rather, they must fulfill certain conditions according to the bridge rental agreement: The most important condition is the use of the bridgepackagingsystem, which consists exclusively of reusable packaging and packaging that can be incinerated without emission of residues, as well as 100% biodegradable packaging made from renewable raw materials. This applies to the gastronomy and its take-awaybusinessaswellas to all product packaging, shoppingbags, parcel cartons etc.

In the case of shops selling foodstuffs or gastronomy, as well as other articles for daily consumption, the products must either be certified organic or come from the region, or serve to create original dishes and baked goods for which it is not always possible to obtain the ingredients from organic cultivation without further hassle (for example, in the case of special dishes or baked goods from other countries).

The following applies to all companies on the bridges: Employees are allowed to pursue further training for up to one and a half days per week, with full pay. The further training usually takes place in other companies on the bridges, which then take over part of the corresponding personnel costs.

A positive contribution to society: tradesmen offer their employees the opportunity to continue their education - a win-win situation for all involved

A good example of the positive effect of continuing education is the profession of chef: cooking the same menu for hours every day at the most impossible times of the day is not very satisfying. On the Frankfurt Bridges, chefs can train in the culinary arts of other countries on the gourmet line, learn the art of baking bread, or even further their education in the direction of nutritional counseling. In the training centers or companies, those who continue their training initially receive only an apprentice's or trainee's salary, but compensation for the full salary is provided by their own employer. And companies can also exchange employees for one and a half days per week in this way.

Through further training, people who work on the bridges not only have more variety and greater satisfaction, but at the end of all days such an expanded range of skills also benefits the customers and ultimately the business owner. When cooking, for example, dishes can become even more delicious and healthier.

Many professions include skills that are also central to other professions - one example is hairdressing

If someone works as a hairdresser, numerous skills are particularly well-developed: responsiveness to customers, a trained eye for aesthetics, in-depth knowledge of the human body, etc. Accordingly, it is quite conceivable that many hairdressers continue their education one or two days a week in other more or less related professions: Very close to their own educational spectrum are cosmetics, fashion and styling. But many hairdressers also have excellent prerequisites for further training in talk therapy due to their daily communication with their customers.

Similarly, in many other professions, people have talents or acquire skills that would go unused for a lifetime without further education. Often the interest in continuing education is there, but circumstances, whether financial or temporal, make such an effort impossible for many people in addition to having to earn an income. Through the leasing scheme or rent reduction on the bridges, companies receive the necessary financial compensation through which they can offer their employees such further training opportunities.

Another positive potential contribution of the companies: promotion of products from the region - which not only benefits the environment but also customers

For products from the region, there are supermarket spaces that are offered to production cooperatives from the surrounding area for discounted rent. These are usually cultivated products, but they can also be items from small companies in the surrounding area that produce soaps or brushes, for example.

In some supermarket buildings there are market stall areas that can be rented not only by professional businesses from the surrounding area, but also flexibly by people who harvest vegetables or fruits in the context of urban gardening, allotment gardens or also in their own private garden, which they would like to sell in times of abundance.  For the latter, the rental is extremely cheap, with rent purely covering the operating costs in the respective time window.

In this way, a seasonal supply of ripe fruits and vegetables is available for the bridge residents and residents along the bridges, which have not been harvested unripe and then transported hundreds or thousands of kilometers like most supermarket produce, but are sold matured and are thus much more delicious.

Example of a market hall for urban gardening products, allotment garden harvests and other seasonal products from the region: On the ground floor and the first floor are the sales stalls, above is a gallery where delicacies that can be consumed with a view down to the action in the hall. The gastronomy of the delicatess gallery is located in the rear part of the hall.

The world is also changing for chain and fast food providers: organic McDonalds and real oven-baked sourdough bread from the Heber bakery chain should be available in the city of the future

Due to the current cost structure or pricing, neither organic ingredients fit into the range at fast food providers such as McDonalds nor genuine sourdough oven bread at bakery chains such as Heberer Bäckereien.

However, with their rental price model, the Frankfurt Bridges also offer large chains the chance to position themselves as future-oriented and environmentally conscious or health-conscious by specifically renting out a suitable space on the bridge to each chain at a low price, with the stipulation that they only offer the highest quality products: McDonalds, Burger-King &Co can each offer a completely organic-based menu in the most sustainable takeaway packaging without it damaging the profitability of their other franchises. Germany's bakery chains, with their ready-to-eat baked goods, can all show what they‘re capable of and offer real bread and baked goods - again, without customers immediately expecting it from their full franchises. Starbucks and the like can score with Fairtrade organic coffee without having to switch to it nationwide in the first step.

A whole landscape of sustainable fairtrade outlets of well-known gastronomy chains has the advantage that these chains can test once, like in a paid laboratory experiment, how they can actually completely change their procurement and manufacturing and sales processes - in order to then transfer scalable aspects from this to their overall franchise system.

Furthermore, the high-quality organic product ranges there can have a certain surcharge despite low rents, in order to test whether and to what extent consumers are prepared to spend more for high-quality food.