Badhuisstraat
Scheveningen.
Entrepreneurs' Street
Will the Badhuisstraat in Scheveningen be sufficiently viable as a shopping destination in the long term? This was the question that the municipality of The Hague wanted to be answered. According to the municipality's retail monitor data, the Badhuisstraat is among The Hague's underperforming shopping areas. The municipality commissioned us to develop a vision for the future of the Badhuisstraat in order to shed light on the positioning and future potential of this shopping area.
Retail reality
We took a deep dive and analysed the results of the retail monitor, looked into other sources, and conducted interviews and observations on location. What are our experiences? What is behind the data? What does the street have to offer? What kind of people visit this shopping area? What vibe does the street have? How accessible is the street? Can you get to it by various modes of transport? Is there a strong sense of community in this area?
Our main conclusion was that the Badhuisstraat area has an active community of entrepreneurs, including several new businesses with future-proof business models. However, it is no longer a shopping street in the traditional sense of the word, and will not go back to being this type of shopping street in the future. The Badhuisstraat simply has too many different concepts with different roles, target groups, service areas, buying motives, and even opening hours, for this to happen.
Individual strength
So we flipped our approach and suggested to no longer see the street as a shopping street but as an 'entrepreneurs' street', and to focus on uniqueness rather than commonality. And to also stimulate start-ups in retail, food and beverage, and the services sector. Excellent accessibility, relatively small shops with relatively low rent prices can make this area a fertile breeding ground for new business models.
Freedom of entrepeneurship
We fleshed out this idea and the potential implications for the entrepreneurs’ network BIZ and the municipality of The Hague. Our vision on storefronts and the design of the Badhuisstraat also included the physical aspects of the street. We proposed giving business owners the freedom to upgrade the look of their façade and to use 'their' pavement or street according to their needs, for example as parking for vehicles or bicycles, or as a terrace. Anything is possible and the setup can be adapted flexibly, so that it can accommodate the changing needs of the entrepreneurs. We developed a framework that enables each entrepreneur to create a business that can grow and thrive, and translated this to a project programme.
