News from 07/23/2008
Retail: Giessen leads among cities with up to 100,000 inhabitants
Giessen, Kaiserslautern and Flensburg are the most expensive retail locations in Germany with a population of less than 100,000. According to a study by Kemper’s Jones Lang LaSalle, Giessen leads by far: it is the only city in this category that attains peak rents of more than €80/sqm. With less than 75,000 inhabitants, Giessen can compete, the report says, with Augsburg and Karlsruhe, which are much larger. Kaiserslautern, at €75/sqm, increased its peak rent by €5/sqm compared to the previous year, while prices in Flensburg (€70/sqm) remained stable. Rosenheim (€70/sqm, +€7), Bad Homburg (€65/sqm, +€4) and Bamberg (€65/sqm, unchanged) occupy fourth, fifth and sixth place. A total of 100 cities were investigated by Kemper’s Jones Lang LaSalle for the study.
Hamburg: Ditting to construct office building and boarding house at Brooktorkai
The construction firm Richard Ditting GmbH & Co. KG, Rendsburg, will build a seven-story office structure with an eleven story boarding house tower on construction site 1 of the Brooktorkai quarter in Hamburg’s HafenCity for Germanische Lloyd AG. The new building has a total gross floor area of 15,453 sqm, of which 10,773 sqm are above ground. The plot is bordered by the Brooktorkai to the north, the Poggenmühle to the east, and Brooktorhafen and Kleiner Fleet to the south and to the west. Construction is scheduled to begin in August. The building is to be ready for occupancy in December, 2009. New buildings are planned on a total of three construction sites at Brooktorkai. On sites 2 and 3, structures with a total of approximately 40,000 sqm of office space are being developed, all of which will presumably be used by Germanischer Lloyd as its new headquarters.
Citi: Three property consultants chosen
For consultations and transactions in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Citi, the financial service provider, will be working primarily with Knight Frank, CB Richard Ellis and Cushman & Wakefield. Citi announced that the service mandate comprises property holdings including 1,640 offices, call centers and branches with a total area of more than 12.2mn sqm in 53 countries in the EMEA region. John Westwood, head of retail and business development for EMEA at Citi, said that Citi had “previously worked with a large number of different service providers to support our transactional activity.” By concentrating on three consultants to service the Citi portfolio, the firm hopes to optimize effectiveness.
Axa REIM: Office building acquired in the Netherlands
Axa Real Estate Investment Managers (Axa REIM) has made additional acquisitions in the Netherlands for its open fund AXA Immoselect: for €81mn, the firm purchased the 27,000 sqm office complex called “Eusebiushof” in Arnheim. According to Axa, there is a long-term lease to the municipality of Arnheim, as well as lengthy rent guarantees for the unrented areas. The 16-story property was developed by Eurocommerce Holding B.V., based in Deventer.
Berlin: Tegel Airport could be converted into commercial area
After its planned closure, the airport in the Tegel district of Berlin could be converted into a commercial area. Senator for Urban Development Ingeborg Junge-Reyer (Social Democrats) told the daily newspaper Berliner Zeitung that the Berlin Senate is accordingly preparing plans for the premises measuring some 466 hectares. “We’ve set up a project group to study existing concepts for Tegel and revise them,” Junge-Reyer said. Initial dialogs are planned for September. The architectural office von Gerkan, Marg und Partner, which designed the airport as one of its first projects, is to be integrated into the re-planning of the main building which opened in 1974. The “Planwerk Westraum” submitted by the administration in 2004 projected special use of the airport building as a company headquarters or an exhibition, leisure or entertainment center. According to Junge-Reyer, high-quality apartments as well as commercial uses would be possible on the airfield.
Nuremberg: TAG sells 100 apartments for €10mn
TAG Tegernsee Immobilien- und Beteiligungs-AG has sold a residential portfolio in Nuremberg for approximately €10mn. It consists of around 100 apartments divided between two historical residential complexes already renovated by the seller. The buyer is Versorgungsanstalt der Deutschen Kulturorchester, an employees’ retirement fund of the German cultural orchestras. The purchase price amounted to an annuity factor of about 15.5, according to Privatbankhaus Hauck & Aufhäuser, which handled the transaction.