News from 10/29/2008
Hypo Real Estate: Request for €15bn from rescue fund
The financially stricken mortgage lender Hypo Real Estate (HRE) is the first private bank to seek the shelter of the government rescue fund, by announcing on Wednesday that it has applied for a €15bn liquidity guarantee from the Financial Market Stabilization Fund, or SoFFin. The bank will also “apply to SoFFin for additional, comprehensive support, including potential capitalization measures.” This recourse to the fund is intended to secure HRE’s short-term liquidity needs. The bank reported that the €50bn in guarantees from the government, a German financial consortium and the German Federal Bank announced on October 6, 2008 are in the final stages of negotiation and will presumably be fully available by mid-November.
IVG Immobilien: Niesslein to be new CEO
According to reports in the media, the former CEO of DeTe Immobilien, Gerhard Niesslein (55), is to become the new chairman of the board of IVG Immobilien AG. The newspaper Börsen-Zeitung reported that Niesslein, now a member of IVG’s board of directors, will be appointed as the successor of Wolfhard Leichnitz at the beginning of next week. Leichnitz stepped down from his position in September, 2008. Niesslein became the CEO of DeTe Immobilien in 1999 and switched to IVG's board of directors after its takeover by Strabag. Meanwhile, the private bank Sal. Oppenheim has again expanded its stake in IVG from not quite 16% to more than 20%.
Real I.S.: Office property acquired in Paris for €32mn
Real I.S. AG has acquired an office property in the center of Paris for its institutional investment vehicle BGV Bayerische Grundvermögen III SICAV FIS (BGV III). The purchase price, including all additional expenses, is said to be approximately €32mn. The firm stated that it was able to obtain a discount of some 20% on the original price. The seven-story building with seven subterranean floors has a lettable area of about 3,000 sqm and an underground garage with 27 parking spaces. Fives, an engineering firm, has a nine year lease on 100% of the building. It was substantially renovated last year and is equipped with modern technical facilities.
Stuttgart: LBBW abandons shopping center plans for Schlossgarten area
LBBW Immobilien has apparently given up its plans for a shopping center on the lower part of Königstrasse. Press officer Brigitte Reibenspies told THOMAS DAILY, “For the time being, the large-scale solution is off the agenda.” The reasons, she said, are the high level of investment for a new building and the high quality of the existing buildings. Therefore, she continued, the Schlossgarten building, where the new building was to have been constructed, will not be demolished, but selectively renovated. In particular, the shopping promenades at the entryways to the Schlossgarten area will be beautified. Meanwhile, LBBW is looking for new tenants for the stores that are soon to be vacated by the chains K&L Ruppert and Terranova in the BW-Bank-Haus on Königstrasse 3.
Frankfurt: High-rises in western “Europaviertel” to be limited to 60 m
According to the daily newspaper Frankfurter Neue Presse (FNP), the Frankfurt planning committee has determined that no high-rise taller than 60 m may be built in the western segment of the “Europaviertel,” or “European Quarter”. The tower near the now under construction trade fair hall will be shortened by 40 m from the originally planned 100m, the paper continued, and another high-rise, also 60 m tall, at the future “Europagarten” (“European Garden”) is to be approved. The FNP reported that the reason for the limit on height is because the black-green (Christian Democratic Union/Green Party) coalition that is now in Frankfurt's city hall wants to concentrate the tallest, most visible buildings in the financial and trade fair districts, rather than allowing them to be strewn across the town. In addition to the limit on height, the FNP said the coalition also decided through the planning committee that 30% of the residential area in the western segment of the “Europaviertel” will be reserved for welfare housing. The city council will make a decision on the proposals during the coming week.
Frankfurt: Vivico starts office building construction in Europaviertel
Vivico has launched work on the first office building in the “Europaviertel,” or “European Quarter,” in Frankfurt. The CA-Immo subsidiary is building the new German headquarters of the BNP Paribas bank, France, on Europaboulevard. It is being built on construction area Nord 1 right next to the Mövenpick Hotel and will have a gross floor area of approximately 34,000 sqm—23,000 sqm of which will be lettable area—on six above-ground floors and one underground floor. BNP Paribas has leased some 12,000 sqm, or more than half, of the total lettable area. Vivico is acting as the sole developer and, when the building is ready for occupancy in the second half of 2010, will hand it over to the tenant. Beside offices, the new building will also have 2,900 sqm for retail and gastronomy and an underground garage with 181 parking spaces.