News from 02/04/2008
Daimler: Potsdamer Platz sold for €1.4bn
The automobile maker Daimler AG has sold its properties on the Potsdamer Platz in Berlin for nearly €1.4bn. A speaker for the concern quoted this figure in Stuttgart on Friday. The new owner of the 19 buildings is SEB of Sweden. The two firms announced the sale in the middle of December, but the purchase price had at first remained secret. Offices, apartments, a music theater, a Hyatt hotel and the “Potsdamer Platz Arkaden” shopping center are in the complex. Daimler itself will continue to use about half of the offices located there. It will book the sale in the first quarter of 2008.
DEFO GmbH: Five office and commercial buildings sold to Irish investor
DEFO-Deutsche Fonds für Immobilienvermögen (Fund for Property Investment) GmbH, a subsidiary of Union Investment-Gruppe, has sold five office and commercial buildings from DEFO-Immobilienfonds 1 (Property Fund 1). The objects with a total area of approximately 12,000 sqm are situated in German metro areas. The buyer is an Irish investor who acquired the “BlueMont” portfolio via an investment company seated in Luxembourg. “This sale means we are using the market opportunities in Germany to advance, through selective reinvestments, the internationalization and diversification of our portfolio,” DEFO announced. “We plan further acquisitions in other European countries as well as investments in the areas of retail, hotels and logistics,” the DEFO management said.
Commercial properties: Chinese firm to invest €20bn in Germany?
According to the magazine Property Finance Europe, a Chinese investment company intends to invest up to €20bn in German commercial properties and has consequently contacted a number of German property managers. The identity of the firm is not yet certain, but the magazine reported that it is a state-owned or partially state-owned fund.
Frankfurt: Development plan for Gateway Gardens approved
The redevelopment of the former U.S. residential project ”Gateway Gardens“ at the Frankfurt Airport has taken a decisive step forward. The Frankfurt city council has now approved a plan for the 35 hectares at the Frankfurt Autobahn interchange. Demolition on the 20 lots measuring between 1,400 and 50,000 sqm is almost complete. The plans for “Gateway Gardens” provide 700,000 sqm of gross commercial floor area on 25 hectares net development area. The project is being pursued within the framework of a public private partnership that joins the city of Frankfurt with the airport operator Fraport, ING Real Estate and the project developers OFB and Groß & Partner.
Duisburg: Kölbl Kruse starts Looper office project at inland harbor
The investment firm Kölbl Kruse GmbH is starting construction work on the Looper office building at the Duisburg inland harbor. This is the company’s fifth construction project at this site. Looper is being developed directly behind the headquarters of the tour operator alltours flugreisen (airtrips) GmbH. The oval building complex will offer a leasable area of approximately 9,000 sqm and was designed by the architectural office Bahl & Partner Architekten BDA in Hagen. The building will have five office floors and two underground parking levels. Completion is planned for the second quarter of 2009. Tenants will be the temporary employment company START Zeitarbeit NRW GmbH, on almost 2,000 sqm, and SBB Cargo Deutschland GmbH, already based at the inland harbor and also on nearly 2,000 sqm. Kölbl Kruse is still negotiating a lease contract with alltours flugreisen.