When Service-Led Activities and Tertiarization Processes Replace Old Industries and Local Brownfields: Changes, Perceptions and Perspectives in the Northern Industrial Area of Lugoj, Romania

Abstract

This paper examines the transformation of the brownfield sites and the places occupied by old industrial activities in Romania, focusing on a medium-sized town since small- and medium-sized towns are mainly overlooked in the current scientific debates. These towns frequently followed similar development patterns to large cities, but at different paces in local urban regeneration. We conducted a case study on the Romanian town Lugoj, focusing on one of the most important industrial areas which encountered a significant decline during the post-socialist period where ruins remain as proof of the post-socialist urban regeneration efforts. Recent years (2020–2022) unveiled a great interest in the regeneration of this area with positive spatial outcomes, experiencing a massive development of tertiary activities and thus turning this former industrial area into a service-led one, with some industrial units that were completely regenerated while others remain in ruins. The research was conducted from 2020 to 2022 and used qualitative methods and spatial analysis through GIS methods. The results emphasize the recent changes in the former industrial areas, where service activities replaced the previous old industries. Furthermore, the main findings highlight that the investigated area provides multiple opportunities for further development, thus contributing to the regeneration of the area through the development of a wide variety of tertiary activities. Since small- and medium-sized municipalities remain overlooked in the recent research, this study could represent a significant example for further strategies of the urban development of small towns that have been strongly altered by the local inherited industrial brownfields.

1. Introduction

This paper explores the main changes in local urban brownfields and old industries. It aims to highlight the main spatial changes in the former industrial sites where services replaced, to a large extent, both the brownfields and the local old industrial facilities. Brownfield sites and their regeneration represent an important topic in the current scientific debates because their renewal is frequently perceived as a significant contribution to the local development of the contemporary urban settlements, both in large cities and in small- and medium-sized towns where they remain as part of a significant legacy of the local urban cultures [1,2,3,4]. Brownfield sites still represent a problem in urban spaces, even in the ongoing urban renewal and regeneration process [5,6]. They are sites of significant value situated within urban or rural areas, with a formerly viable economic use, which turned in time into abandoned, marginalized, and derelict places [7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14]. The redevelopment of these sites represents a mandatory issue for the regeneration of the local urban areas, for the (re)development of declined areas and for the preservation of the cultural heritage, as the (re)usage of brownfields is a massive opportunity for ensuring local economic development. Against such a background and considering brownfields as a real quest for sustainability in urban areas [15], the paper examines the changes in local brownfield sites from their previous industrial status to the new service-led functions, under the influence of globalization. Consequently, we analyze the case of one of the most important industrial areas of a Romanian medium-sized municipality, since both Romanian cities and, particularly the small- and medium-sized towns, remain peripheral in the current international scientific debates on brownfield sites [7,9,10,11,12,13,14].

The core argument of the research stems from both the theoretical background and practices on the post-socialist transition of the Eastern European cities to a market-oriented economy that continuously shaped the inner patterns of cities [16,17,18,19]. The post-socialist spatial shifts in urban areas of Romania came with important costs and decline in industry [20,21,22], with brownfields and industrial derelict places remaining as proof of an unresolved issue in Romania [3,4,23]. This aspect argues that both brownfields and urban ruins are topics that need to be considered in the current international scientific research. Therefore, it is argued that the interest in ruins continuously increased in the last decades [7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,17,18]. Brownfields, derelict places, and marginalized sites which previously had a viable economic functionality (particularly industrial) are ubiquitous scenes in Romanian small- and medium-sized towns that are overlooked in the present research in the face of the large urban habitats and the contemporary metropolis [7,8,9,10,12,13,14].

The purpose of this study is to investigate how local brownfield sites and industrial marginalized spaces from Lugoj (Romania) have been adjusted to the new capitalist urban order, through the lens of the present global economies framed by the new creative industries and by tertiary activities, aiming as well at preserving the local cultural heritage. In this way, the urban landscape contributes to local spatial development. In order to understand these aspects at a local scale we present a case study on the largest industrial area (the northern industrial area) of Lugoj. The main objectives of the paper are: (i) to identify how and why the investigated industrial area turned to brownfield and dereliction; (ii) to assess the main changes generated at the site by the recent FDIs; (iii) to point out the spatial shifts and transformations induced by the new service-led economies and tertiarization; (iv) to portray the main changes in the local landscape; (v) to investigate the perception of the local residents on these recent spatial shifts; and (vi) to advance an objective critique on what has to be done in the future to completely regenerate the existing vacant places of this industrial area. The paper seeks to examine how brownfield issues could be resolved by urban development planning, their impact on land use, landscapes, and neighborhoods, as well as on the redevelopment projects. It also aims to reveal the perception of local residents regarding both regenerated and neglected areas. To accomplish this scientific objective, the study has considered the internationally relevant scientific literature, the specific methodological approaches in the field, as well as some relevant good practices developed in different cities and towns in Europe. The main research hypotheses are: brownfield areas in small- and medium-sized towns represent fertile spatial territories, providing multiple opportunities for urban renewal and regeneration and for local development; the rhythm of regeneration varies from one site to another, according to the local features, specificities and infrastructure; these sites remain open for both regeneration by industry and for services, with the last ones being preferred in the local development projects; regardless of these redevelopment projects, some brownfields still remain neglected; the perception of local residents highlights positive outcomes, through the reuse of the brownfield areas by new economic activities in line with the new demands of a globalized market economy that led to positive outcomes in the urban landscape. The paper is structured as follows: first, a theoretical background and literature review are unveiled to portray the main features of brownfields and industrial ruins within the general background of transition to the new market-oriented economy framed by the present urban tertiarization; second, a brief description of the methodology and of the study area is made to both unveil the research design and to contextualize the sampled case study; the third section critically examines the main changes in the selected case in point in line with the main scientific objectives of the research. The results and discussion section emphasizes the main issues in the local urban renewal and regeneration with the spatial outcomes framed by the service-led economies and tertiarization as a key model in the local reconversion of brownfield sites.

2. Theoretical Framework: From Brownfields to Tertiarization and Service-Led Economies

During the post-1990 period, the cities and towns of Central and Eastern European countries encountered multiple changes in order to adjust their spatial structures, functionalities and landscapes to the new capitalist order and to the new demands of market-oriented economies [16,21,22,23]. These spatial and functional transformations were a consequence of the globalization processes and international policies in the economic field [24]. Changes occurred, of course, in Romanian cities after the fall of socialism, altering the main areas of the towns from residential properties to economic ones, thus generating massive urban restructuring [7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14]. The areas most affected by transformation were the industrial and transportation ones, and even agricultural lands as such areas were still present in all Romanian towns. In this regard, the most affected urban places were all those with various economic functionalities. The transition process to a new market-oriented economy affected mostly the industrial areas because the old industrial structures no longer fitted to the new policies of a capitalist economy [7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14]. Therefore, the process of urban restructuring was frequently present in the industrial areas of the towns, since many state-socialist factories encountered a massive decline during the transition period, finally being closed and thus turning to vacant and abandoned places [7,9]. On the contrary, new foreign direct investments brought other productive properties rapidly into the landscape [9]. The new FDIs opened the chance to change the local urban landscapes of the former industrial areas, generating new visions in the local urban restructuring and new perspectives in the urban regeneration that were based on the new policies in urban (re)development, by aiming to shift the older spatial structures to new ones in line with the local communities’ demands. All these had important spatial costs and impacts in the contexts of post-socialist industrial transformation, generating uneven development in urban areas and in their inner industrial landscapes [20,21,22] and unveiling that the foreign capital plays an important role in the local urban and industrial restructuring [21,25]. Consequently, different divergent patterns were visible in the Romanian cities with rapid development of some economic areas through FDIs [26], while other places remained in decline and redundant in their absence [7,8,9,10,11]. There are also cases in which some units were restored through FDIs being brought in, but then simply left vacant. Against such a background of socio–spatial and economic changes within the post-socialist urban development, different challenges and opportunities appeared to solve the local urban problems from urban regeneration to urban cultural heritage preservation. Furthermore, the social–economic growth of the post-socialist cities and towns was a key issue in local urban restructuring and regeneration [16,27,28,29]. All these are interchangeable processes that altered cities with different spatial outcomes, determining both uneven local development, inequalities, and divergent patterns in urban renewal processes [26,30,31,32,33,34,35,36]. Accordingly, foreign capital could generate new emerging developed areas, but also brownfields associated with industrial ruined sites which often remain neglected both in practice and in the local agendas of urban planning. This is because some industrial units are bought but then not regenerated by investors, with parts of them remaining unused and degraded. However, in the light of urban sustainability, they must be reconsidered in order to increase the local quality of life and urban welfare as well as to reframe the local urban landscapes that were strongly altered by the local industrial restructuring [7,9,11]. Furthermore, the new interventions in local urban regeneration have to respect the new environmental demands required by the new policies in urban regeneration with no costs in the local urban environment quality. The spatial conversion appears, therefore, as a key process through which brownfields could be reintegrated in the towns’ functionalities, respecting both the communities’ needs and the environmental requirements. Considering the quest for urban sustainability, brownfields appear as a “blight on the urban landscape” being a part of a “legacy of a careless past” and point to a likely future unless more sustainable approaches are taken to developing our cities” [6,15] (p. 1; p. 7). This aspect could be applied and reinforced in the local strategies on urban renewal/planning, either through industrial restructuring through new and creative industries and through social and cultural aspects [23,37,38,39,40,41,42], or through spatial reconversion and tertiarization as a key process in the contemporary service-led economies of cities.

As Turečková et al. (2022) pointed out, “brownfield sites include abandoned buildings and premises that no longer serve their purpose and are completely or partially unused” [43] (p. 803). Therefore, brownfields appear as direct spatial outcomes in the urban landscape because of the ongoing urban restructuring processes from national to local scale, in line with the political dynamics on urban development. They are one of the multiple social and spatial effects of urban restructuring under transition and of the urban policies in local and regional development strategies [33,44], representing a key feature in urban renewal and spatial transformation according to the international trade policies in a globalized world economy which are frequently ubiquitous in the contemporary cities and towns [45,46]. The globalization processes encourage the continuous development of international projects on public landownership, as they are a relevant tool through which the brownfield sites have multiple opportunities for their re-usage and renewal. In this regard, the present urban brownfields have multiple possibilities for their revaluation through new creative industries, services and other urban activities, in line with both the contemporary demands of the cities and towns and with the current political and economic perspectives in urban restructuring under the influence of globalization [47]. On the general background of new economies, of government policies, and of Foreign Direct Investments and international capital, the close relationship between state and society [48] could appear as an avenue for various actions in urban regeneration and in urban brownfields renewal, generating positive spatial shifts in urban development [49] and regeneration. It is still debated whether spatial reconversion through reindustrialization represents a positive intervention in local brownfields restoration, as tertiarization and the complex means of the contemporary service-led economies tend to reinforce the efforts of all those interested in brownfield regeneration. This is because tertiarization and service-led economies tend to replace the old industries in the cities and towns, generating changes in the structure of international trade and services with a visible transition from the manufacturing industry in the new economies [50]. This feature is common in the contemporary cities because the process of tertiarization directly contributes to the urban reformation under the new market forces and globalization. Consequently, the socialist legacy of old industrialism (here including brownfields) could open new fertile perspectives in marketization [51], emphasizing new positive spatial outcomes in the urban landscapes. As Miles [52] argues, service innovation has the power to shape new forms of urban development through land use change. In this regard, tertiarization generates economic growth and contributes to employment sustainability as well as spatial development [53]. The expansion of the service sector generates spatial transformation and the (re)adjustment of economic activities to the new market economies, with a shift from industrial activities to services and cultural industries because of new policies in urban development [54,55,56]. Tertiarization ensures the economic growth of the cities, generating in almost all urban areas spatial transformation after the complex processes of deindustrialization and post-industrialization [57]. It directly contributes to the local urban development and regeneration because “the accelerated development of the tertiary sphere has long been a refrain in the world scientific discourse” [58] (p. 294), frequently visible in the local agendas of urban renewal by different actors responsible for these processes at the local, regional and national scales. In this regard, changes occurred not only in the inner patterns of the towns, but also in the occupational structures of population, in the local employment market and in the local spatial polarization of the city, thus ensuring economic growth and generating spatial changes and new configurations of the urban space [59,60,61]. As a complex and multifaceted process governed by TST (Three Sector Theory), tertiarization highlights the shifts from the first economic sector to the second one, and from the two sectors to the third one [62]. In this second context, brownfields directly illustrate their spatial and functional opportunities for renewal and repurpose usage. The appearance of abandoned brownfields after the political and economic transition of the former socialist bloc is an economic, social, planning and environmental issue. The possible solutions may neglect some aspects of these complex issues and cause other problems in local urban renewal. On the other hand, the old industrial sites and brownfields provide fertile spaces for local urban redevelopment and renewal, capturing the attention of various domestic and foreign investors interested in investing in such areas. Foreign direct investments (FDIs) remain a relevant means in this regard, being oriented either on the renewal of former industrial structures respecting the current environment demands, or as new greenfield interventions, since the latter seem to be easier to complete and develop. This aspect is at present sustained mostly both by foreign investors and by domestic investments designed to change the former industrial landscapes. Such interventions are related to specific policies, incentives and costs of facilitating brownfield redevelopment, and they depend on the national policies in urban redevelopment and on the local policies developed by the local authorities since they are the main actor in ensuring the local urban development in line with the needs of the communities. These policies are designed to sustain urban renewal, and the redevelopment of the marginalized ex-industrialized areas remains a hotspot in the present interventions in urban renewal. Of course, various advantaged and disadvantaged groups of industry transitioning to the tertiary sector appear to unveil that industry as it was designed in the past and no longer fits with the spatial urban structures being replaced with new and modern units of production and, mostly, with service activities that tend to replace the industry with services in the modern communities. In this regard, FDIs have an important role in the local economic development sustaining these processes of social and economic change [63,64,65,66]. These issues of economic change are appropriate for the territorial background of Romania since it remains a part of the former state-socialist European block. In this regard, we consider that Romania is a good example because of the deep crises following the transition, and also for its recent and rapid catch up. The town of Lugoj also represents a good case study because it is located in the rapidly developing southwest region of the country, and also partially in the shadow of the bigger centres of growth such as Timișoara. The location of the selected case study fully benefitted from all the opportunities and advantages provided by the strengths of the regional development background that frames the western region of Romania. On the other hand, the local development of Lugoj followed similar patterns as Timișoara, but with its own slow pace [7,9,11] due to the main differences generated by the country and locally specific peculiarities and differences. The most important largest cities of Romania attracted from the start huge interest from different investors through FDIs framed by appropriate policies in urban renewal. The small- and medium-sized municipalities were faced with these interventions later, when they were transposed in the local urban development agendas because of the national policies’ adjustments to the local realities of small- and medium-sized towns. However, the latter would follow the same patterns with specific particularities and outcomes, considering the main perspectives in the new changes in current urban restructuring and its related processes from spatial and economic development to the new prediction techniques in the local development of the towns. Against such a background, the next sections present the main results of the study on the spatial and functional shifts of the local brownfields through a specific case study on the most important industrial area of Lugoj municipality, which after 1990 encountered a significant process of urban regeneration from old industrial properties to new service-led activities.

3. Study Area, Materials and Methods

3.1. Study Area

As previously mentioned, this geographical research focuses on a specific case study oriented on the spatial changes that occurred after 1990 in the most important industrial area of Lugoj municipality of Romania [7,8,9,10,11]. This area supported important transformation of its brownfield sites, ranging from decline and failures to successes in local urban regeneration processes. As a former industrial town [7,11], Lugoj has turned into a service-led municipality due to the main investments in the third economic sector. The town is placed in the western part of Romania (Figure 1) in Timiș County, with multiple development opportunities due to its geographic position close to the municipality of Timisoara and to the western Romanian border, thus ensuring close connections with the Central and Western European countries.

The massive investments in transportation infrastructure over the last decade determined new opportunities for various investors (domestic or international) to develop different business in the town, with most of them being in industry and in the service sector. Such practices and interventions, frequently supported by local authorities, contributed to the local urban regeneration and renewal in the last years. Furthermore, the new investments in the brownfield sites illustrate successful practices that could be applied both on other formerly industrial areas of the town and in other small- and medium-municipalities that are frequently overlooked in present scientific research [7,9].

3.2. Materials and Methods

The study is based on previous research concerned with the local industrial dereliction and restructuring, and continues the specific approaches to brownfields used as a case study in the northern industrial area of the town, one with the most dynamic regeneration process in recent years (2020–2022). The data and information for the present research were gathered using qualitative methods related to a geographic analysis methodological framework. The first step of investigation was the in-field participatory observation and ethnographic research. The investigated site was visited repeatedly in 2021 and 2022 to directly capture the main spatial changes and the evolution of the development projects. These changes where mapped using GIS tools in order to provide a correct understanding of the spatial transformations from the old industries to the new economic activities. The next step was the analysis of the local urban development programs and strategies in order to understand the main vision of the local authorities on the urban regeneration projects. We used the General Urbanistic Plan from 1997 in which the northern industrial area was designed especially for industry, the General Urbanistic Plan from 2009–2010 which was completely revised and more appropriate for the new perspectives on urban development through services, and the Local Development Strategy of the City Hall from 2010 in which the services were properly designed to replace the old industries in the northern industrial area opening this place for new activities closely related to the local transport infrastructure. The official documents analysis was completed with discussions on this topic with representatives of the local authorities. Consequently, we had discussions with the local authorities (city managers) at a thematic workshop which were very useful in understanding how local brownfields and old industries are approached to develop new projects in local urban regeneration. Furthermore, discussions were oriented to the new services development in close connection with the recent transport infrastructure, which ensures appropriate connections with different Romanian cities as well as with the European cities and towns. A focus group with local residents was conducted in order to emphasize the local perception of the residents on the main spatial changes occurring in the investigated area, this methodological approach being largely recommended. In order to maintain the accuracy of the local perception, the ideas of the residents were exactly presented and critically examined. We sampled eight participants at the focus group as residents in the neighboring district of the investigated area to unveil the main changes directly perceived and observed by the people, and on the other hand we selected people who used to work in this area in the formerly productive units to understand their perception on the local metamorphoses of the old industry either in new ones or in services. In this regard discourse analysis provides significant opinions focused on the main themes included in the discussion contexts from the old industries changes, both positive and negative perspectives to the new process of tertiarization which contributed to the local services development that reframed the old industrial landscape. The people were coded and referred to as R1…Rn, to concealed the respondents’ identities in line with both the focus group method requirements [67], and the GDPR international regulations. The focus group interviews were conducted in spring 2020, the year when this area started to encounter an important development through services development together with the development of the regional transport infrastructure. The method includes a single round of talks with eight local residents, mostly involved in their daily lives in the investigated area as former workers. Of them, two respondents live in a new residential district that appeared in the investigated area neighborhood. The respondents’ opinions complete the local authorities’, allowing the triangulation of the main findings and arguing the positive feedback in the local urban development. The voice of the local authorities was considered using the findings of a meeting developed at the City Hall of Lugoj. With an in-depth investigation on the selected area these methods provide important results for a meaningful analysis that could be applied to other areas and to other towns.

Together with other complementary methods, the results framed by the focus group could successfully triangulate the main findings of the research. Therefore, in the investigated area, we also applied infield, participant and ethnographic observations as they remain relevant in the geographic studies of the urban space [68]; then, the main spatial outcomes were mapped using GIS methods, since mapping urban changes by GIS remains relevant in the investigation of the local urban economic and industrial restructuring of the cities and towns [69]. Furthermore, mapping through GIS methods as a result of the infield personal and ethnographic observation is an important methodological background in order to capture the main spatial changes in local urban development processes, as well as to understand the spatial dynamics in the context of the spatial and economic changes under a large variety of interventions. The digital approaches of the urban regeneration processes were successfully embraced by the local authorities regarding this analysis, since GIS and related digital tools provide relevant means to solve the local urban problems and, implicitly, the local brownfields (Figure 2).

The intersection of the above-mentioned methods, largely recommended by the researchers of different backgrounds [70,71,72,73], triangulated the main findings and provides, beyond the critical approach, accurate results in line with the spatial realities of the investigated area.

4. Results and Discussion

The presence of brownfield areas in the Romanian cities are a result of the national, regional and local economic heritage generated by the former political system which, before 1990, was strongly oriented to industrialization regardless of the international market realities [26]. It is widely acknowledged that socialist policies and economies largely and artificially altered the small towns with the presence of various industrial units of different types and branches, or with the expansion of mono-industrial units in countless small urban settlements and even in the rural areas [7,8,9,10,13,14]. Such artificial interventions at a national scale in the so-called urban development and national urbanization plans were followed by the global decline of almost the entire Romanian industrial sector in the post-socialist period after 1990 [20,21]. In a very short time, countless factories and plants encountered a massive decline and soon they were bankrupted and closed, remaining as vacant buildings with many of them soon turning to ruins and derelict places [7,8]. This was the fate of countless industrial properties, but fortunately a small part of them would survive due to the new foreign direct investments. However, most of the old socialist state-owned industrial units turned to brownfield sites, as derelict and redundant places. Of course, they were all in the attention of local authorities and a key problem for local urban regeneration, but specific and proper interventions in the renewal of these areas would come later and with different paces of regeneration. Meanwhile, the cities and towns would be damaged both in terms of their landscapes and in the quality of the residents’ lives. The socialist industrialization was followed by the processes of reindustrialization and tertiarization to various extents in different towns and different industrial areas, according to the local features of these areas and to the degree of interest in the areas shown by domestic or foreign investors [11,13,14]. A glance at the main urban changes in the medium-sized Romanian municipalities, and especially those located in the Romanian Banat region sustained by a developed transport infrastructure, provide a significant understanding of the main urban transformations from industry to new industries and service activities that were raised both in the former brownfields areas and in the local urban outskirts [74]. Consequently, Romanian urban settlements went through different and multiple spatial shifts, without entirely solving the brownfield question [75]. The projects focused on the brownfield regeneration of the small- and medium-sized municipalities unveil an important trend to develop tertiary activities under the umbrella of the current service-led economy’s development and tertiarization. This is the core question that the present research is trying to answer by critically examining one specific industrial area in the municipality of Lugoj in the next sections.

4.1. The Local Brownfields of Lugoj Municipality: Contextualizing Changes—From Socialist State-Owned to Post-Socialist Industry

The municipality of Lugoj evolved in time as a manufacturing urban settlement and strongly developed its industrial sector during the socialist regime, which regarded the process of industrialization as a key for the development of small- and medium-sized towns. Consequently, important industrial areas appeared at the periphery of the town; the largest and most important was the northern industrial area, which before 1989 accumulated the most factories and plants as well as thousands of industrial employees [7,9,12,14]. The landscape of the area was typically industrial, including factories, plants, industrial halls, rail transportation areas, large warehouses, etc. Factories such as IURT, IUPS, Mondial, the Slaughterhouse and FMN were the most important plants, of which the first three occupied a large amount of space between the national road and Timis river. All of these units belonged to heavy industry except FMN [7,9,11,13,14]. After 1990, during the post-socialist transition to a market-oriented economy, these factories and plants went through massive changes, both positive and negative, being either restructured and reused or abandoned and becoming derelict places. For instance, despite the relevant difficulties encountered by the local industrial sector during the transition to a free-market economy, Mondial SA, a producer of building materials, has been rapidly privatized and managed by the international concern Villeroy and Boch. Consequently, the factory continued its production without damaging the local landscape with unused and derelict areas. IUPS and IURT followed the same pattern through domestic and international investments with opposite results. IUPS followed a similar pattern as Mondial, while IURT has been strongly fragmented. A part of this plant remained in use as Lugoment, while another part has been offered to Rieker, an international brand in shoe production [7,9,11,12,13,14]. It operated until 2019 when it was closed with important buildings remaining vacant and unused. In the case of the northern industrial area of Lugoj, all these shifts illustrate that the post-socialist changes in the local industry were assumed by different perspectives of reindustrialization but to a low level. On the other hand, local authorities targeted this area as a new industrial zone, both in the first urban development strategy (1997) and in the second (2007) [76,77]. However, after 2010 and 2015 an important change in perspective occurred related to the development of this area. Situated in a strategic position and benefitting from the development of the local transport infrastructure by the building of the new city ring and of the national highway, this area captured the attention of both authorities and investors for different initiatives in the redevelopment of the local service-led economy through tertiarization. These aspects recently reoriented the main vision of the local projects on local regeneration to new perspectives based on the development of the service sector, therefore determining new projects and approaches on the restructuring and renewal processes of the northern industrial area.

4.2. Projects in Urban Renewal of the Local Brownfields; from Reindustrialization to Service-Led Economy Development in the Northern Industrial Area of Lugoj

As mentioned before, the geographical position of the northern industrial area favored multiple opportunities for local development [11]. Since local urban development is sustained by the development of the transport infrastructure, the proximity of the northern industrial area to the old road network and the construction of the new ring road and highway eased the connection of Lugoj with the most important cities and towns of Romania, as well as with the western European countries, increasing the interest in the development of this area through the expansion of the service sector as this sector is closely connected to the rapid access to different markets, communities and people. Figure 3 highlights the straight road connections with the western cities of Romania, with the Romanian border, as well as with the Romanian capital Bucharest; this encourage various investors in services, commerce, retail and logistics to develop their businesses in this area. This aspect is also sustained by the local authorities that provide support to these types of activities in the service sector.

This aspect is underlined by the multiple changes in both functionality and landscape undergone in the northern industrial area through the development of tertiary activities. Consequently, local authorities supported new development projects which successfully transformed and reused the vacant and unused sites of the brownfield area. The case of the Lidl logistics center, one of the largest warehouses in Romania which supplies goods to all supermarkets from that part of the country, Kaufland Supermarket, Altex Store and Dedeman represent four successful projects that re-used, developed and reframed the northern industrial area of Lugoj with important impact on the local landscape and in the local land use, as well as in the quality of life of the local residents and the people living in the surrounding area of Lugoj municipality. These spatial shifts are mapped in Figure 4, which illustrates the typology of the sites in the area: regenerated sites, whether functional or in standby; sites ready for further activities (industry or services); the new sites with tertiary activities; and the unused sites with derelict landscapes. Local intervention in urban and industrial restructuring are obvious, and at the same time dynamic as Figure 5 shows, portraying the presence of both different types of services and the restructured industry in the investigated site.

For an in-depth analysis of the main spatial and functional changes in the northern industrial area of Lugoj municipality as they are mapped in Figure 4 and Figure 5, we can note that this area was completely used by industry before 1990. Large industrial units prevailed here with no other facilities for services or related activities. After a massive decline encountered after 1990 this area started to regenerate its activities, firstly in industry. Some previous industries were replaced with new ones using the former industrial establishments, especially through the lens of FDIs. Counter wise, other industries completely failed, thus generating significant derelict places [7]. The last decade came with important metamorphoses of the former brownfields. On the one hand, we can observe the appearance of new services prevailing in this area. They are obvious both in the former industrial sites regenerating the former industrial facilities and in the new empty lands. These services are especially in commerce and retail or focused on transport activities. Moreover, we can observe an array of services developed through the former brownfields’ regeneration and in the new areas. Furthermore, through the local restructuring of this area there are new visibly regenerated places designed for future services in this area. On the other hand, significant places of the former industries remain ruined and waiting for further restoration interventions. A part of them belongs to the state-socialist industry, while others are part of the local cultural heritage of old manufacturing that could be considered in terms of local capitalization of the old manufactures.

The spatial changes to services and new industries are part of the new trend in local urban outskirts regeneration sustained by the recent development of transport infrastructure at different scales from local to regional, national and international. The small- and medium-sized Romanian municipalities located in the proximity of important transport routes encountered similar patterns in urban development with services and new industries as parts of the contemporary trends in local urban development. In order to decode these transformations, the following section presents the projects of local development in commerce and transport services, as well as in new industries that regenerated this former industrial area of Lugoj municipality from the previous industrial profile of the area to an emerging service one.

4.3. From Industry to Services Development—New Projects in Local Urban Development

The development strategies over the last years focused on the development of projects in commercial, retail and logistics activities. Lidl Logistic Center was opened in 2016 and was the fourth warehouse built in Romania designed for freight distribution to 45 supermarkets in the south-western part of the country. Built in collaboration with Bog’Art, to the highest sustainability standards, this logistics center represents an investment of more than EUR 20 million (Euros) being one of the most important investments in the services sector of Lugoj. It spans more than 160,000 sq. m and operates some of the most modern technologies in warehousing in Romania. As mentioned before, it supplies more than 45 supermarkets located in the south-western part of Romania, and this logistics and retail center is located in Lugoj due to the proximity of the new highway which offers rapid connection to other Romanian cities where Lidl operates. This key aspect was also considered by local authorities who underlined the importance of the transport infrastructure in both local urban development and urban renewal. Beyond this gain for the town, another important issue was the capitalization of the local labor force that was hired in the Lidl logistic complex (Figure 6, upper left). The warehouse was designed by considering the new and modern technologies with high energetic efficiency, in line with the sustainable development of the cities, with highly reduced rates of pollution and with no environmental impacts. This service investment is considered as a normal evolution of both the local development processes as well as the Lidl network development. The local transport infrastructure development through A1 and A6 highways allows a good optimization of the transport networks, thus reducing the impact of the vehicles on the environment. Based on this investment, it can be anticipated that this service business will provide new opportunities for the further development of the local services sector, as well as for the emergence of new related businesses in the area [78]. This was proven by the emergence of other service activities in this area.

Thus, Kaufland Supermarket (Figure 6, upper right) was the second service investment that reframed this industrial area by capitalizing the land used previously by industry This new and large commercial unit, together with its supplying area and the parking facilities, used the industrial site located in the proximity of the Natural Silk Mill (FMN), one of the most traditional textile factories in Romania that encountered a massive decline after 1990 [7,8,9,10,11,12]. This new investment extends to 2900 sq. m, and besides the main building and service area provides 205 parking places for customers, which is considered a main priority for the clients since the parking issue remains an important one in all cities and towns. Considered as the most important employer in Romania, it generated approx. 100 new jobs for local residents. This new service-led investment is designed to the highest quality and standards and with the greatest care for the local environment by using green energy sources. The new complex renewed another unused sites in the area and offered services to local residents, clients and customers with goods and food products based on the national identity of the foods. They support Romanian producers by branding their products ‘Made in Romania’. The commercial brand argued that their first priority was the support and promotion of Romanian goods as well as providing a balance between imported merchandise and Romanian products [79]. As in the previous example, the care for the local environment and for supplying local residents’ daily food and non-food products represent just two of the main reasons for which this service unit appeared in the northern industrial area of the town. This investment was highly welcomed by the residents of the local area as well as from the surrounding suburbs of Lugoj, as the town had no such large supermarket until the appearance of Kaufland. Situated in the near vicinity of Kaufland, Altex Commercial center (Figure 6, lower left) represents another new investment in the northern industrial area of the Lugoj, with a different commercial profile from the two previous examples. It is the largest electronics store in Lugoj and a real gain for the locals, as Lugoj did not have a commercial unit selling electronic equipment and digital devices. This new commercial unit expands on 1500 sq. m in the northern commercial area of Lugoj and includes 35 parking lots for clients. The design and functionality of this unit also respects the requirements of environmental policies, and the Altex management team declares a permanent care for the needs of the customers by developing their network of stores even if many of them having to travel to Timisoara to purchase electronics and digital equipment and devices [80]. These investments underline the local demand for specific goods by the people of a small- and medium-sized municipality and were welcomed by the local residents as we can see in the following sections. In line with this practice another investment needs to be mentioned in this case study since its commercial profile aimed to complete the local demands of the urban population. It is the case of Dedeman Retail Complex (Figure 6, lower right), the most recent tertiary investment in this area that replaced the formerly industrial profile with commercial and retail ones. Built upon the former IURT plant that was partly demolished, Dedeman, which is the most important Romanian enterprise, opened in 2019 in Lugoj its 52^nd store through an investment of EUR 11 million including the land purchase, the unit construction and all the internal logistics and services equipment. This investment came as a desire of the company to be present in small- and medium-sized towns and closer to the local customers, and retails construction materials and goods and products from the field of DIY for houses and gardens, thus completing the need for such goods in the town and proving that local development and diversification of trade activities are driven by the specific needs and demands of the contemporary standards of living in the population. The new investment expands in agreement with the current environmental legislation and spans 10,000 sq. m with more than 240 parking lots, the construction marking the shift from an old socialist state-owned industrial site to commercial services. Furthermore, this new retail business also underlines that the development of small towns can be achieved by proper intervention and support from the local authorities for the renewal and repurpose of brownfield sites through the shift to tertiary activities. It is important to notice that this investment developed rapidly, being one of the most outstanding interventions that changed the former industrial landscape from the northern area of Lugoj. The company is acknowledged as one of the most important in Romania, thus proving that small- and medium-sized municipalities could be seen as fertile backgrounds in urban development by the major national actors in the field [81,82,83]. This new commercial emplacement would change to a larger extent both the landscape and the functionality of this land section previously dominated by the socialist industrial buildings. Beside these four major players considered as large services projects in the local economy, there are many other small enterprises which regenerated the local brownfields: small stores, gas stations, hostels, restaurants, media, medical centers, courier and transport services, etc. (e.g. Sameday, SA, DPD Courier, Rompetrol, Santa Monica SA, the Medical Center of Diagnosis, Miracris (Figure 7) etc. They complete the landscape of this area, thus proving that the spatial metamorphoses highlight good practices for local urban renewal by using the older brownfield sites and providing new opportunities for further interventions, since some derelict areas still await future action. In addition, the small local businesses in services complete the offer of the largest investment projects, arguing that this formerly industrial area successfully fitted to the needs for new services of the local community. At the local scale these perspectives on service-led development tend to continue in the future with many other commercial services being designed for location in this area following the development models of other medium-sized Romanian municipalities.

4.4. From Traditional Manufacturing to New Creative Industries and High Profiled Services

A significant investment in the northern industrial area of Lugoj on a vacant site is through the Drăgan European Foundation (FED), representing a major foreign direct investment made by Iosif Constantin Drăgan, an important cultural and business personality of the town. He was born in Lugoj but lived for decades in Italy where from he managed multiple business there and in Romania. Acknowledged as a symbolic figure for his native town, Drăgan made significant investments in Lugoj, capitalizing symbolic areas from traditional industrial ones and vacant sites that belonged in the past to the former citadel of Lugoj. Societies such as Butan Gas and the Drăgan European University are relevant samples post-socialist intervention on space, as well as Drăgan European Foundation standing as proof of post-socialist investment in local culture in highly specialized services and in the field of new creative industries such as the local university through the Butan Gas Company and other new investments in local media and culture [7,9,11]. In this regard, the local television and radio, as well as the local newspapers, illustrate both the new approaches in local service development and in the creative industries. Another vacant and unused space was used by local publishing house Nagard, a branch of an international publishing house, illustrating these new approaches in local urban redevelopment and renewal. The building hosting these high profile services, with a modern architectural design (Figure 8), proves these aspects and demonstrates that capitalist interventions in the local urban regeneration are certainly practices leading to local community development. Drăgan European Foundation found itself a proper site in the northern industrial area alongside the newly developed services and the new investments in local industry [9,11,13,14]. It is argued that this building will also host new types of services in line with the local demands of the community.

4.5. The Perception of the Local Residents and Local Authorities

The mentioned interventions have fundamentally changed the previous industrial landscape of the northern industrial area by the transformation of a previous brownfield site. The new sites and buildings provide a new image of this area, and the change in function provided by the new investments came with positive outcomes and benefits for the local residents. Furthermore, the new regeneration interventions have been implemented with care for the local urban environment. This argument is sustained by the perception of both the local community and the representatives of the local authorities. In the first case, multiple aspects have been revealed from the general development background of the town to the punctual and specific investments that are certainly real gains for the local community. In this regard, it is argued that the new investments in this formerly industrial area completely reframed the urban landscape. A representative participating at the focus group pointed out that: "before these new investments have been made, the local landscape of this area was to a large extent repulsive—large and abandoned industrial halls and ruins that belonged to the socialist state-owned industrial past, thus damaging the local urban image; these new interventions in local services are largely welcomed, not only by us as residents living in these neighborhoods, but also by all the people of the town; these new elements of urban development highlight that the municipality of Lugoj has a good social and economic evolution but at a slow pace; this area could support more investments in order to capitalize on all its vacant spaces as well as its ruined sites that still remain in this area remembering the communist past. Finally, we can see important spatial changes in significant transformation in the urban landscape aside with multiple services dedicated to the people. Before the appearance of these new commercial units we largely used to go to the city of Timisoara for different goods and products. On the other hand, it is important to us as residents to see that our municipality finally follows the European trends in urban development and its importance increased in the latest years since the new highway has been completed and functional” (R1, aged 58, male). This statement argues the main changes in the local landscape as well as the new opportunities for the local community. Other opinions unveil similar ideas reflecting nostalgia and place attachment to this site: “I used to work in the FMN Factory both before 1990 and after, and since it was closed I admired with sadness its ruins. It was good to see that parts of it have been renewed and reused but there is too much space belonging to this plant to be entirely reused. As you can see, Kaufland and Altex Stores, on the one side, and the furniture store and the new hostel, on the other, show that these formerly industrial sites could be successfully reused and regenerated in line with the local community demands, but in my opinion, I think that further interventions and investments could be more connected to the past and to the heritage of this site. Maybe some textile factory’s profile could be located here in the future to remind us of what once used to be here. However, these new interventions are welcome, and it is very important for us to have in Lugoj all the services that we need” (R2, aged 61, female). In the opinion of local residents, this statement argues that this area could be appropriate also for new textile industries maintaining the old industrial heritage through new creative industries. Consequently, this area could be further foreseen for new creative textile industries in fashion or textile design, and of course for a wide range of services. Another participant to the applied focus group stated: “The new commercial complexes are very important to us beyond the landscape changes. Kaufland is the largest supermarket of the town, and it offers a good opportunity for our daily and weekly supplying with food and different goods. On the other hand, it is obvious that this large store largely polarizes the local surrounding area of the town since people from the nearest villages come to the city for shopping. Before the appearance of this supermarket, our city had no such specialized stores excepting some small markets units. It is also important to mention that this new investment in commercial services completely reframed the formerly vacant spaces that belonged to the older industry of the town. Even though I come weekly to this store I still admire the new local and urban design quite similar to other European cities or with the largest Romanian cities” (R3, aged 56, male). This statement unveils the new trends of the towns’ development in line with the spatial and functional evolution of the largest cities both from Romania and abroad, arguing that small- and medium-sized municipalities have their own capacity to evolve in line with the global trends in local urban regeneration. This is argued also by the local polarization of the town [11,84]. Other voices acknowledged the presence of Dedeman that largely reused a significant part of the formerly IURT/Lugomet Plant: “The landscape of this part of the town significantly changed. It is almost unrecognizable comparing with what was once in this place. Sometimes I feel that I am not in this town, the spatial design, the parking area, and the local landscape are completely different and identical to other developed cities. Considering this commercial complex, it represents a real gain both for the town and for the people, since it provides a lot of products that we currently need, and which were not present on the local urban markets. It is important, I think, not only for the local residents but also for people from different small towns and villages of this region. Undoubtedly, this was a very good investment in Lugoj and the location using a former industrial area is perfect” (R4, aged 50, female). Another respondent paid attention to the new Dragan Foundation since this investment introduced two relevant key features in the town: new specialized services that were absolutely nonexistent before 1990, and new buildings with a modern image: “it is very important that Lugoj has specialized services in terms of local culture and education; the local radio and TV, the local newspaper and the publishing house are very, very important for the local community; considering the new building, it was the first construction that lead our minds to the western buildings of developed cities, and it is unique in our town” (R5, aged 49, male). Considering the new investments in this area, other voices pointed out the small businesses developed in this part of the town reusing former industrial sites: “We can simply see these large commercial complexes that recently appeared, but there are also countless small firms with a large variety of services—medical, transport and gas supply, accommodation, restaurants, etc., all of these demonstrate that this area is well fitted to a large variety of services for the local community” (R6, aged 48, female). In all, the respondents’ voices largely support the local development of this area through regeneration and renewal processes that replaced the formerly industrial sites, but they also criticize the remaining abandoned spaces that are still unused. On the other hand, people welcome the increasing trend of services economic activities, while others are in favor of a balanced development between industry and services together with the need for further interventions in this part of the town. The latter are included in the local priorities on urban development by the local authorities. As stated by the City Hall representatives, the northern industrial area of Lugoj was first designed in the Local General Development Plan from 1997 as an exclusive industrial and logistics area, aiming to incorporate all the new investments in the local industry [77]. However, at that time the spatial structures of the former old industrial plants and factories did not fuel a large interest for the investors because then their regeneration appeared as a complex, expensive and probably unsafe and inefficient process, since in the post-socialist dawn the political background for local urban regeneration and local regulation in urban planning were immature with no certain perspectives in local sustainable development of both the urban context and the local economic background. The second version of the Local General Development Plan was rethought and came with new perspectives in the development of the area by including other economic activities to provide new opportunities for activities such as services, retail, logistics and new creative industries that would develop together with the previous post-socialist investments [77]. The new visions in this plan were based on different previous experiences encountered by the European post-socialist towns and on mature, consistent and solid political and economic backgrounds and regulations on the local urban development processes and initiatives. The renewal interventions of the northern industrial area determined the general spatial and functional development of the northern part of the town. Consequently, in recent years, a new residential district with individual houses and villas appeared in the neighborhood of the northern industrial area. People living in this new district welcome the economic development in these industrial areas acknowledging that: “We live in the vicinity of this area, and we are so pleased to have ready to hand all the new services, from food products to different goods provided by the new stores and supermarkets. Furthermore, there are many people living in this new residential area that are employed in the new firms which replaced the old industrial units. I think that the northern part of the town is one of the most developed areas of Lugoj and the proximity of the new road-infrastructure will attract new investments both in the local economic field and in the local real estate projects” (R7, aged 47, male). In this regard it is obvious that the recent transport infrastructure represents a major opportunity for the local development of the town, and implicitly for the investigated area either it was re-designed for services, new industries or residential function in its neighborhood. We can observe that the northern industrial area supported multiple spatial and functional changes due to the local transport infrastructure generating a mélange of services and economic activities, but also spaces pending for further interventions. Consequently, this area remains an important one for future services development and for new industries (classic or new or creative) attracting in its future evolution the development of new residential places. This is the general background designed for the next future renewal interventions since this area still provides multiple opportunities through the reuse of the local brownfields and the spaces of the formerly old industries. Even though it underwent significant spatial, functional and physiognomic changes, there are still present in the local landscape derelict, abandoned and unused sites that belong to the old industrial context of the town and are waiting for future renewal actions. These aspects are critically discussed in the next section.

4.6. Vacant Places and Unused Sites of the Local Brownfields Still Remain: Future Perspectives and Interventions

Despite the significant changes in the local brownfields in the northern industrial area of the municipality of Lugoj, there are still unused brownfields that have to be further considered in the local development strategies. They are a part of the post-socialist urban restructuring and a consequence of unequal renewal processes in this area. The most important derelict site standing as proof for the decline of the local industry belongs to the IURT/Lugomet factory that was the largest industrial plant in this area. Even though a part of it was purchased by the Rieker Company, which further regenerated and reused it according to modern models of production imposed by a capitalist economy and globalization, another part was demolished and turned into a service area through the building of the new Dedeman Commercial Complex discussed above [7,9,11,13,14]. Nevertheless, an important amount of this old industrial site remains dominated by derelict and ruined buildings, as pictured in Figure 9. On the other hand, since the Rieker Company (which used a part of this industrial plant) recently closed its production in Lugoj, the regenerated buildings are vacant and unused and available for further interest either for industrial or tertiary activities (Figure 10). In addition, the former Slaughterhouse, abandoned for decades and completely ignored both by authorities and by investors, must be considered for restoration since it remains an emblematic building for both this industrial area and for the town of Lugoj [7,9,13,14]. This site could be designed for future restoration projects considering its cultural importance, being an important building that belongs to the local cultural heritage of the town. It could be turned, for example, into an industrial museum attesting the old industrial traditions of Lugoj, or it could be used for different services that could be a reminder of the local cultural traits of the town. There were some initiatives for its restoration, but up to now they have failed. An advertisement posed on its front highlights that this ruined building is for rent and available to be used after a massive regeneration. The official position of the local authorities is to continue to regenerate the northern industrial area of the town through new creative industries and services, this perspective being a local and continuous priority and estimates that the new investments in services would attract future investors that could capitalize on the remaining derelict areas and the vacant buildings.

Considering the main findings based on the opinion of the local authorities and the residents’ perceptions accumulated with the key aspects in local urban development of the official documents, this area provides multiple perspectives in its future development based on a large variety of functions and urban activities as they are presented in

Table 1. Future perspectives in the local development/evolution of the northern industrial area of the municipality of Lugoj.

Economic/Urban Sector/Function	Types of Economic/Urban Activities	Notes
Services	commercial and retail	favored and sustained by the transport infrastructure development
	logistics
	transport services
Industry	new creative industries
	classic/traditional industry
Residence	new residential areas in the proximity of the northern industrial/service area	favored by the development of the new services, transport and industrial restructuring

.

Furthermore, positive feedback would be present in the future but in a small extent and at a slow pace since the local development in small and medium tends to be an easier process in comparison to the largest cities and capital cities. It is expected that all these new investments made in the industrial and service sectors would attract more investors and new renewal initiatives since this area is closely related to the new road infrastructure connecting the town with all urban settlements of the region, and moreover with the central and western European countries.

Adding to this, the new residential area recent built in the proximity of this northern industrial and services area represents an opportunity for future development projects in the field of new industries and service activities (commercial, retail, logistics, etc.) [9,11]. Summing it all up, the landscape of this area has been largely regenerated through new industrial and tertiary activities that completely changed the face of this part of the town, encouraging future actions for local development processes on the former industrial sites.

5. Conclusions

The paper discussed aspects on how local brownfield areas and industrial ruins in the municipality of Lugoj (Romania) have been regenerated to a new capitalist urban form through functional shifting to new creative industries and tertiary activities specific to a free global market. The main changes in the investigated case study reveal that the spatial and functional transformation of old industrial areas reframes the local urban landscape and replaces previous industries and brownfields through new investments in both services and new industries based on the transport infrastructure development, and through the regeneration and reuse of the old productive places. The northern industrial area went through multiple changes in the last few years with positive outcomes, both in terms of spatial functionality and the local landscape. These aspects were strongly sustained by the recent development in the transport infrastructure which increased spatial connectivity between the cities and supported the (re)development of the local industry and services. As a former industrial town, the municipality of Lugoj shifted its old industries and the brownfield sites to new industrial activities, especially into services that repurposed the old industrial structures. These spatial and functional shifts preserved the local cultural heritage of the town, improved the urban landscape, and contributed to the local development of this community [7,9,10,11,12,13,14]. This aspect was largely supported by the local residents of the town. On the other hand, such transformations produced in small- and medium-sized towns (as our case study argued) prove that the local development closely follows, but with slower paces, the spatial evolution, the economic growth, and the spatial patterns of the largest cities and with positive outcomes in spatial conversion, urban landscape and in the local welfare of the residents. Most spatial changes in the brownfields were sustained by foreign direct investments and by domestic capital, receiving the support of local policies on urban development from the local authorities and assuming a key role in the communities’ development [84,85,86,87]. It is obvious that to a large extent this area underwent massive economic conversion with the prevalence of service activities, testifying that the local brownfields are suitable for new interventions and investments both in services and new industries, thus successfully contributing to the repurposing of the older vacant and unused industrial sites. Thus, multiple industrial ruins and marginalized sites were reused and turned to new economic activities. The main spatial changes were oriented to services and industry as well as to new creative industries that are omnipresent scenes in the developed cities. The findings also highlight that the issues of the local brownfields could be resolved with positive interventions in local urban development planning. New investments in services and related activities in new industries capitalizing both the local derelict areas and the unused places could represent an important way of action in the further economic development of the investigated area. These aspects are supported both by the local authorities and by the perception of local residents, thus highlighting the positive outcomes in the urban landscape after the repurposing of brownfield areas has been delivered in line with the present economic and political demands, filtered by the complex process of globalization. Furthermore, the main results of this study emphasize the core argument of the paper stating that brownfields represent fertile unused sites that can be successfully used in the local urban regeneration processes, validating our research hypothesis. Brownfield areas in small- and medium sized-towns, often peripheral in the current scientific debates, represent fertile spatial backgrounds providing multiple opportunities for urban renewal and regeneration and local development; these opportunities have been presented in this paper arguing that the old brownfields can be successfully used in the local processes of urban renewal through reindustrialization and service-led activities (commercial, retail, logistics, transport, tourism, etc.) [88,89,90].The pace of brownfield regeneration is different from one site to another, according to their local features, specificities, interventions and infrastructure. In the present case study the development of the transport infrastructure played a key role in local urban (re)development through the spatial and functional (re)conversion of the local brownfields. The remaining spaces of the brownfield sites could be further resolved through the lens of local and domestic investments and through new FDIs sustained by the local authorities. Certainly, a successfully key process could be the public–private cooperation in both the invested capital and the new strategies in local urban regeneration. In addition, these sites remain open for both industrial regeneration and services, the last ones being preferred in local development projects. Aside from the new changes developed in the service sector and new industries, some brownfields remain unused and could be designed for future projects in local urban renewal through the lens of service development at the local scale. The perception of the local residents highlights positive feedback, welcoming these changes, since the local brownfields were overlooked for many years. Furthermore, brownfield areas and their repurpose remains a priority in the local urban regeneration, the investigated samples in this study illustrating good practice in local development on the one hand, and on the other a reality that could be followed in the future both at the local scale in other regions or in other industrial areas specific for small- and medium-sized towns. Against such a background, the locally developed practices through brownfield reconversion in Lugoj municipality could be approached as a basic model to follow in the context of the local urban renewal and regeneration framed by the service-led economies and tertiarization. This research reveals some limitations both in its main findings and in methodological approach since it was focused on a single case study on a medium-sized town, but the results highlight significant aspects of gaining an understanding of how urban restructuring works at the local level when it is empowered by the local development of transport infrastructure. Not all industrial areas in the town successfully encountered this positive transformation, as not all small- and medium-sized towns registered these patterns in local urban regeneration; therefore, this study could open new fertile debates concerning the local spatial conversion of brownfields through new creative industries and services. It calls for further study in the field, focusing on the spatial conversion processes of small- and medium-sized municipalities, since they remain overlooked in the present research. In addition, this case-in-point argues for the relevance of the transport infrastructure development in the local urban regeneration of the old industrial spaces and local brownfields through spatial and functional conversion, highlighting that services development often attracts new avenues for the local development in urban areas of small municipalities.

6. Notes

This paper continues previous research of the author focused on the urban and industrial restructuring processes in the Lugoj Municipality and on the local marginalized sites. As with the previous research, this paper draws attention to a particular industrial area, the regeneration of the northern industrial area through the lens of tertiarization, service-led economies development, and the new urban development projects in the commercial and logistics fields developed in the last two years. The paper is based on both previous research and new insights and findings through the local service-led development in Lugoj.