the living city
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Special report on the City of Frankfurt am Main powered by PropertyEUTRANSCRIPT
SPECIAL REPORT ON THE CITY OF FRANKFURT AM MAINPowered by PropertyEU
THE LIVING CITY
DOMRÖMER: REBUILDING THE OLD CENTREEUROPAVIERTEL: FIRST PORSCHE DESIGN TOWEREASTSIDE: MOST SUCCESSFULMILE IN GERMANY
I
THE NEWDIMENSIONIN THE HEART OF FRANKFURT
Following the departure of the ECB, the Eurotheum is being developed into a forward-looking multi-tenant property focusing on the needs of tenants in the very centre of Frankfurt. The new Eurotheum unites first-class office space with a modern hotel offering and ground-breaking gastronomy. At the heart of the high-rise upgrade is the new entrance and foyer area, which boasts a lobby, business lounge and unique gastronomy concept. Designed by star architect Peter Kulka, the building unites aesthetics with functionality and quality: Be inspired and get in touch with us.
EXCLUSIVE OFFICE SPACE
STARTING AT 240 m2
– unique in Frankfurt’s central business district
RZ_Anzeige EU Property_01.indd 1 28.09.15 12:07
FRANKFURT IS MORE POPULAR THAN EVER, BUT THE CITY NEEDS TO REMAIN AFFORDABLE FOR PEOPLE ON MIDDLE INCOMES, SAYS LORD MAYOR PETER FELDMANN.
How do you see Frankfurt in 2030? In 15 years’ time Frankfurt will still be a thriving city, with an attractive cen-tre and attractive districts. In Frankfurt North the first students will attend the new Pfingstberg School and new shop-ping and leisure opportunities will be available to residents of Nieder Erlen-bach and Nieder-Eschbach. Professionals from around the country and abroad will visit the new Pfingstberg area to view for themselves the advantages of a com-pact, environmentally friendly district. At the moment the Integrated Draft Urban Development Plan is under discussion. At its centre is the conflict between spaces – for transport, accom-modation, commercial units, schools, open spaces, quality of life. How do you define integrated urban developement? Where do your priorities lie?
To me Integrated Urban Development means that the themes of the future that concern us at the moment with are dealt with not within each sector, but in a multidisciplinary way.In 2007 the federal German government, together with its partners in the EU, adopted the Leipzig Charta for sustaina-ble European cities. At its core is the aim of improving disadvantaged districts as well. That is absolutely right.As to the priorities: We must create more affordable housing. At the same time we must develop strategies that allow us to open up more prospects for the economy.From my point of view we should identify in the Integrated Draft Urban Develop-ment Plan ways of combining work and accommodation. Where to create areas that are exclusively designated for work, for example because it is too noisy for residential use.The other themes – traffic, school, open spaces, should not be forgotten either. The quality of the Integrated Draft Urban Development Plan will be judged by whether we can find appropriate solutions. Ultimately the point is to improve quality of life in the districts
and the city as a whole.Enacting the Integrated Draft Urban Development Plan will not be an easy task. But if we want to develop our city according to the example of European cities – compact, vibrant, green, socially mixed – there is no way around this draft proposal.When it comes to the implementation stage, from my perspective it depends on having intensive discussions with the local population about the individual projects that come out of the Integrated
‘MIDDLE INCOMEEARNERS MUST NOTBE PRICED OUT OFFRANKFURT’
Peter Feldmann,Frankfurt’s Lord Mayor
THE NEWDIMENSIONIN THE HEART OF FRANKFURT
Following the departure of the ECB, the Eurotheum is being developed into a forward-looking multi-tenant property focusing on the needs of tenants in the very centre of Frankfurt. The new Eurotheum unites first-class office space with a modern hotel offering and ground-breaking gastronomy. At the heart of the high-rise upgrade is the new entrance and foyer area, which boasts a lobby, business lounge and unique gastronomy concept. Designed by star architect Peter Kulka, the building unites aesthetics with functionality and quality: Be inspired and get in touch with us.
EXCLUSIVE OFFICE SPACE
STARTING AT 240 m2
– unique in Frankfurt’s central business district
RZ_Anzeige EU Property_01.indd 1 28.09.15 12:07
III
Draft Urban Development Plan. That is the only way we can successfully imple-ment the projects in an “integrated” way. Frankfurt is close to maximum capacity in areas such as housebuilding. Yet from a regional point of view there is no short-age of space. Don’t your colleagues in the surrounding municipalities need to do more? Why is so little being built there?New-build housing is a regional responsi-bility. I have set up the Residential Round Table together with a number of munici-palities in the region and the Rhine-Main Regional Authority. When we build new residential areas in the region it must be co-ordinated on the basis of an integrat-ed plan. Large numbers of homes will be built in the surrounding municipalities in
the coming years too. Take Offenbach, for example, where the harbour or former industrial areas are being developed.One thing is clear: the demand for housing in Frankfurt can only be met with the support of the region. That also means, however, that we need to carry on building accommodation in Frankfurt. That is why I have been pressing for the construction of Pfingstberg for almost two years now. The reorganisation of Rosa Luxemburg Strasse will create a lot more residential space. Yet the SPD is against the development because of fears about the consequences for tenants in the surrounding neighbourhoods. Isn’t that political patronage?
The redevelopment of Rosa Luxemburg Strasse has the potential to create new residential space. However, it is also associated with a wide-ranging inter-vention within the city structure. Even if we were in a position to start work tomorrow, it could still take years until the residential areas are ready.The key points are: demolish Hoch-strasse, demolish a motorway junction, build a new road at ground level, etc. It will take the engineers a few years to untangle all the knots.A general overview allows us to plan better where we can build new hous-ing quickly. It’s not just about political patronage, it’s a question of how we use the capacity we have in the most appropriate way. O
FRANKFURT’S MASTER PLAN MUST MAKE SPACE FOR MANU-FACTURING IN A CITY WHERE OTHER SECTORS, NOTABLY HOUSING, ARE SHOUTING FOR ATTENTION, SAYS MARKUS FRANK, DEPUTY MAYOR OF FRANKFURT. What is the main idea behind the city of Frankfurt’s Master Plan for Industry?The Master Plan for Industry aims to be a long-term strategy for the industrial region of Frankfurt/ Main. The central idea is the ongoing security and contin-ued development of industry as an eco-nomic factor in the context of the city’s overall development. The Master Plan for Industry will take into account the political and social value of productive businesses, reflecting the multi-faceted and wide-ranging significance. Industry is of great importance to Frankfurt am Main: workplaces, income, investments, innovation, internationalisation etc. Where are the greatest shortages in terms of supply of industrial sites?Frankfurt has a large quantity of commer-
cial spaces, with more than 40 industrial areas and sites spread across many dis-tricts in the north, south, east and west and in the city centre area of Frankfurt too. There isn’t an increasing availability of sites that could be used commercial-ly, as disused, unused or underused sites, or potential sites, are difficult to activate and not suitable for the requirements of industrial businesses. There are various reasons for this, such as ownership struc-tures, quality of sites (connections, infra-structure, facilities), the size and layout of the site, the location, existing or expect-
ed disputes with neighbours and loca-tion-related costs. The City of Frankfurt also needs space for housing development. How do you avoid conflict with the industrial sector’s ambitions for growth?The options for avoiding conflicts over site use: give priority on industrial sites to users who are reliant on industrial sites. Communicate in good time with relevant parties (businesses, neighbours and the city). Build in appropriate distances be-tween the different types of user. O
‘MASTER PLAN MUSTMAKE ROOM FORINDUSTRY’
Markus Frank,Deputy Mayor of Frankfurt
IV
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A_002_ANZ_EXPO_REAL.indd 1 30.09.15 01:56
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 15Q2
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10
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2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
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Düsseldorf
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Index(Germany=100)
Single households 2014 (%)
Household size 2014 (person/household)
Unemployment rate 06/2015 (%)
Unemployment growth 14–15 (%, forecast)
GDP per capita 2015 (€1,000, forecast)
Purchase power index 2015
Prime location Cash flow yield Capital Total (NIY) growth return 2014Q2–2015Q2 (YoY) 2015Q2
Berlin 4.6 5.3 9.9Düsseldorf 4.6 0.8 5.4Frankfurt/M 4.7 4.9 9.6Hamburg 4.5 3.3 7.8Munich 4.3 8.7 13.0Prime office 4.5 4.9 9.4 Economic facts
Total population in 1000s, 2014 718Demographic forecast in %, 2014–2030 4.8Unemployment rate* in %, 2015 6.9GDP 2014 in € million 55,357Total number of arrivals 2012 4,285,000Total number of overnight stays 2012 7,071,000INSM City ranking level (rank) 2014 504 (20)Retail relevant purchasing power per capita in €, 2013 6,967Retail relevant purchasing power, index 2013 110.10Retail centrality, index 2013 113.60Turnover-share of allover Germany in ‰, 2013 10.61
Economy and demographics by comparison
Office market Frankfurt O Supply in 1,000 m² O Take-up in 1,000 m² — Prime rent in €/m²/month
Prime rent development in €/m²/month*
Key data
*all dependant civil employed persons. Sources: BulwienGesa, Bertelsmann Stiftung, Arbeitsagentur, OxfordEconomics, federal statistical offices, INSM/WiWo, MB Research
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VI
ECONOMYTAKES LEAPFORWARDFRANKFURT’S ECONOMY IMPROVED NOTICEABLY IN THE FIRST HALF OF 2015. TAKE-UP IN THE OFFICE AND INDUSTRIAL SECTORS IS UP AND THE INVESTMENT MARKET IS BOOMING. A SURVEY OF COMPANIES BY THE CITY’S CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY FOUND THAT THE IMPROVED ECONOMIC CLIMATE IS DUE TO COMPANIES PERFORMING BETTER INDIVIDUALLY AND RAISING THEIR EXPECTATIONS FOR FUTURE DEVELOPMENT, BASED ON STRONG DOMESTIC DEMAND.
C ompanies’ staffing plans indicate that employment figures will continue to increase over the
course of the year. However, companies’ investment plans are more subdued. The main beneficiaries of the upswing are the manufacturing and retail sectors, as well as financial services, banking and insurance. In June 2015, the unemploy-ment rate fell significantly to 6.7%, a fall of 0.6% compared to the previous year.
Business sentiment among entrepre-neurs continues to be very healthy in Germany’s number one banking and financial location. The city’s business climate index, as measured by the chamber of commerce, recently increased by three points to 131.
Frankfurt’s population surpassed the 700,000 mark in 2014. This equates to an extra 13,000 residents year-on-year, a greater increase than in the preceding year, according to research by JLL. Latest forecasts by the City of Frankfurt predict that the population is likely to pass 800,000 by 2027. As before, population growth is driven primarily by inward migration and is spread unevenly across the urban area. The main concentration is in the large new-build districts in the city, such as Riedberg in the north (peripheral districts) and the Europa-viertel (city centre I). These two
districts account for one-third of the total increase.
The city is a magnet for domestic and international investors. According to CBRE, Frankfurt followed up 2014’s very good results by securing its leading position as Germany’s strongest real estate investment market in terms of take-up in the first half of 2015. In the first six months of the year the trans-action volume increased to more than €2.9 bn, more than doubling year-on-year (+127%). This represents the best half-year result since 2007.
Residential is strong
The residential market has been especially strong: with around €450 mln invested in 1,700 apartments. The total transaction volume has already exceeded the total figure for 2014, says JLL. The main reason for this was the increase in sales of development projects, which accounted for almost 80% of the volume in the city on the River Main.The office market in Frankfurt has been stable during H1 2015. Around 177,000 m² of office space was let during the first six months (including owner-occupiers), of which 89,000m² was in Q2. The total take-up figure is around 15% above that achieved in the same period last year.The warehouse and logistics market
in Frankfurt/Rhein-Main registered a take-up of 301,000 m² in the first six months of 2015, significantly exceeding the average over the past five years (211,300 m²). The very strong result was particularly driven by above-average take-up in the second quarter, while the start of the year was rather modest. The Q2 results showed the highest quarterly take-up since records began.
Retail market
Frankfurt’s retail market is compact but varied. It is dominated by the main street Zeil, which is strongly focused on the mass market. Goethestrasse, which is home to luxury outlets, is currently being enhanced with new develop-ments such as One Goetheplaza, which opened at the end of 2013. The upmarket MyZeil, NordWestZentrum, Main-Taunus-Zentrum and Skyline Plaza, near the Messe hall, are the major shopping centres.
In 2014 some of the top rents in the prime locations eased slightly, having risen sharply for some years. One reason was the sluggish pace of economic growth, which made retailers drive harder bargains on the rental front. The popular consumer-orientated precinct of Zeil continues to command Frankfurt’s highest rent at €310 per m². In second place is the luxury retail location Goethestrasse at €270 per m². Many luxury labels and international brands have established themselves here in recent years, including Prada, Louis Vuitton, Zara Home and Salvatore Ferragamo, helping to create a highly attractive shopping scene.
This overview has been compiled using research reports by CBRE, JLL, Cushman & Wakefield, Colliers and BNP Paribas. O
VII
DOMRÖMER:NEW LIFE BETWEENTHE CATHEDRALAND RÖMER SQUARE
Michael F. Guntersdorf,CEO DomRömer GmbH
Stadthaus am MarktVIII
THE DOMRÖMER QUARTER IS BEING DEVELOPED IN THE HEART OF FRANKFURT AND WILL BRING NEW LIFE TO THE CITY’S HISTORIC CENTRE.
T he demolition of Frankfurt’s admin-istrative town hall, an unlamented concrete colossus dating from the
1970s, five years ago provided a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape the city centre. The urgent postwar rebuilding of Germany’s financial capital was neces-sary for economic recovery, but robbed the city of much of its former character. Now that the 7,000 m² site between St Bartholemew’s Cathedral and the former city hall (Römer) has been cleared, the DomRömer project aims to restore the living heart of an historic city.
The core of the project is 35 new residen-tial buildings in the traditional Frankfurt style, 15 of which will be exact repro-ductions of former residences, based on prewar plans and photographs. Among the jewels is Haus Esslinger, a copy of a 14th-century home whose residents included an aunt of the poet Goethe. Around 200 people will be accommo-dated in 80 homes, while at street level there is space for 30 shops, cafes and restaurants. A two-storey underground car park will contain 600 spaces as well as cellar storage and utility connections for the new homes. The total investment is €169 mln, including the demolition of the previous building, with construction due to be completed in 2017.
Masterplan
In 2009 the city council drew up a mas-terplan for the restoration of the area and created the DomRömer GmbH com-pany to oversee the project. “We are cre-ating something absolutely unique,” says Michael Guntersdorf, CEO of DomRömer. “With the laying of the foundation stone at the start of 2012 we reached a turn-ing point. The discussions were over; we know now that 15 reproductions and 20 new buildings will emerge which will be an outstanding addition and which peo-ple will want to live in. We have already been contacted by more than 650 poten-tial buyers before the marketing has even begun. The interest is enormous and re-flects the quality of the quarter.”
On the southern border of the site is the Stadthaus am Markt, a row of five buildings that will incorporate an ex-hibition, a conference facility, seminar rooms and residences. The exhibition space will house a permanent display of Frankfurt’s archaelogical gardens, which disappeared from view during the
postwar building bonanza. The gardens, which include remains of the city’s Ro-man walls, Frankish royal court buildings and late-medieval cellars, will be brought under cover to protect them from the el-ements and presented in a museum set-ting, freely available to the public.“The tension is growing for us as we
gradually progress with the reconstruct-ed and new buildings,” says Michael Guntersdorf. “The architects and the companies carrying out the work are do-ing a very good job. Brick by brick a new Altstadt is growing up.”
DomRömer is an extremely ambitious project that will change the character of Frankfurt city centre. What were the biggest challenges you faced?The rebuilding of Frankfurt’s Altstadt is a great challenge for everyone involved, but also an enormous opportunity: the DomRömer project will restore the heart of the Main metropolis. The new Altstadt, with its cafes, shops and homes, will give life to the inner city and allow citizens, visitors and residents to be part of Frank-furt’s urban history again.Two factors were a particular challenge from the beginning: the status of the his-torical sources and the inner city loca-tion of the 7,000 m² large building site. The first step was to establish how many
of the 35 houses that stood between the cathedral and the Römer before being destroyed in the Second World War could be rebuilt. After examining all the sourc-es, including old plans, photographs and the Treuner brothers’ scale model of the Altstadt, we established that there was enough source material available for 15 of the 35 houses to reconstruct them in their original form. The remaining 20 buildings will be erected as new buildings according to an area plan. This required among other things the use of desig-nated Frankfurt-style building materials including, for example, the familiar red Main sandstone.
Live’s mix
Just as demanding was, and is, the inner city location of the building site. The lack of large storage spaces and the heavi-ly used roads in the immediate vicinity required us to make a detailed logistical plan for the building site. Together with qualified partners we devised a concept that prescribed, for exampe, specific time windows for the delivery of building materials, to avoid disrupting tram and vehicle traffic. All other activities on the building site were also planned in de-tail in advance. At peak hours there are around 80 different companies working on site, so an exact overview is crucial for the success of the overall project.
What were the priorities in terms of making the area attractive for new residents?The new quarter between the cathedral and the Römer is attractive for its central location, especially the lively mix of cafes, businesses and homes. In addition, the reconstructed buildings represent the var-ious epochs of Frankfurt’s urban history and together with the new buildings they create an atmospheric combination of tradition and modernity. The new resi-dents of the quarter will be part of this in-ner city life and enjoy buildings with mod-ern specifications in a city centre that is rich in history. Do you see this as a blueprint that other cities can learn from?Every city, whether in Germany or Europe, has its own particular challenges. In this sense the project is certainly not a “blue-print” that can be transferred to another metropolis. However, it is worth noting how prepared the city of Frankfurt was from the outset to engage in dialogue with citizens and experts to ensure that the restoration of the historic centre of Frankfurt was as faithful as possible to the original. O
Haus Esslinger
IX
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FIRST PORSCHE DESIGN TOWER IN EUROPE
THE PORSCHE DESIGN TOWER IS THE LATEST ADDITION TO FRANKFURT’S REVIVED EUROPAVIERTEL, AND ONE OF THE MOST DISTINCTIVE ITEMS ON ITS SKYLINE.
T he 100m tower is being built to a design by Hamburg-based Blau-
raum architects, following a competition that attracted interest from 20 companies across Europe. Blauraum’s design came second in the competition, but the organ-isers and project developers decided to go ahead with the plan, describing it as “excep-tional and authentic archi-tecture with a distinctive and functional exterior design”.German developer P+B Planen und Bauen, which previously built the Parkend residential district on the Römischer Ring, is construct-ing the tower in collaboration with lifestyle brand Porsche Design. Building work is expected to begin in 2016, once planning permission has been obtained, and finish in 2018. Project developer Hilde-
brandt Immobilien say prices have not been determined for the 160 luxury apartments, but the exclusive residences are expected to command rates of around €5,000 per m².
Dynamic district
The building is situated next to the Emser Brücke, overlooking the city skyline on one side and the Taunus mountains on the other. The Europaviertel has been transformed in recent years into a dynamic mixed residen-tial and office district, with the Skyline Plaza shopping centre providing essential retail space. As the global market recovers, major foreign investors are looking once more to build in Germa-ny’s financial capital – New York-based Tishman Speyer’s fourth office tower in the city, the 170-metre Taunus tower, is due to be finished in 2018 and will comprise 60,000 m² of office space. But since the 2008 crash the trend has been away from purely office devel-opments as investors look to diversify their portfolios. Ger-man and Austrian developers such as Aurelis and CA Immo
have invested heavily in new housing projects, while listed Turkish investor-developer Servet is building a 220,000 m² logistics facility alongside 81,584 m² of office space on the former Neckermann site, a stone’s throw from the European Central Bank.
International clientele
The transformation of the area began with the closure of the city’s freight rail terminal (Güter bahnhof), which cleared the space for Nicholas Grim-shaw’s Frankfurt Messe Hall 3, completed in 2001. It also reconnected the surrounding Gallus area to the Kuhwald and Rebstock districts, inte-grating it into the city centre and driving up house prices and rents. In 1999 Albert Speer and Partners drew up an out-line plan to turn the Europa-viertel into “one of the larg-est and most significant inner city development locations in Germany.” Though the fin-ished project was criticised by some for the uniformity of its architecture, Michael Denkel, a member of Albert Speer’s board of directors, insisted it had been a success. “If I was
looking for a home in Frank-furt, the Europa viertel would be my first choice,” he told the Frankfurter Rundschau.The Porsche Design Tower, Europe’s first branded build-ing, fits in with this evolution towards a more varied, cosmopolitan cityscape. Its eye-catching facade, with the storeys jutting out in a staggered formation like neatly stacked shoeboxes, is immediately recognisable even amid the cluster of high-rise buildings on the skyline. Inside, the apartments range from one to five-bedroom flats, penthouses and town-houses over two storeys. Car parking is not in the base-ment, but on the first three floors of the building. And the involvement of the prestig-ious Porsche Design brand will tap into the demand for high-end living in Germany’s finance hub. “Frankfurt is the ideal place to realise this kind of building project,” said Gerd Hebebrand, managing director of P + B Planen und Bauen. “Its situation and economic signifance makes this an interesting location for an international clientele.” O
FIRST PORSCHE DESIGN TOWER IN EUROPE
XI
EASTSIDE:SWEEPINGCHANGES Olaf Cunitz, deputy mayor for planning
and building, City of Frankfurt
EVEN IN A CITY DEVELOPING AS RAPIDLY AS FRANKFURT, FEW AREAS HAVE SEEN SUCH SWEEPING CHANGES OVER THE LAST 20 YEARS AS THE EASTSIDE.
A programme of new-build projects and renovations is giving
the once decaying docklands area a new lease of life as an upmarket business and resi-dential district. Twelve years after the municipality set up Eastside Frankfurt to invest €1 bn in the area, the results are clearly visible, with luxury flats and offices interspersed with parks and recreational facilities, gourmet restaurants and artists’ and creative studios.
The most prominent symbol of this revival is the new Euro-pean Central Bank headquar-ters, a pair of skyscrapers reaching 165m and 185m into the air, connected by a low-rise atrium. The €1.2 bn building was constructed on the site of the former whole-sale market (Großmarkthalle) by Austrian-based architec-tural firm Coop Himmelb(l)au. Opened in March 2015, its 48 floors accommodate around 2,900 ECB staff from 28 nations.
Many of the developments growing up in the towers’ shadow reflect Frankfurt’s increasingly cosmopolitan character. More than 2000 new homes are planned in projects such as Eastgate
Living, a development of 90 homes on Ferdi-nand-Happ-Straße, and the 80 units of Quartier East opposite the ECB. Both these high-specification units are expected to command prices in excess of €4,000 per m². Office developments include Deka Immobilien’s 19-storey Lighttower and the Union-Areal, a complex of 15 buildings arranged around a square on Hanauer Landstraße, with 25,000 m² of office space and 3,000 m² of retail.
What has been the biggest change in the Eastside area?“The Eastside has already changed more dramatically in the past 20 years than almost any other district,” says Olaf Cunitz, deputy mayor for planning and building. “This development will continue. My wish would be to signifi-cantly increase the residential capacity in the district, espe-cially in and around Hanauer Landstraße. For me that is an essential transformation: the change from a district that was strongly commercially oriented in parts to a stronger, mixed use quarter.”
To that end the city authorities have spent €8 mln on recreational areas,
such as the four-hectare Hafenpark at the foot of the ECB building, completed in 2013, which includes sports facilities and a skate park. The €42 mln Osthafen-brücke, also finished in 2013, connects the city to Sachsen-hausen across the river and provides quick access to Autobahn 661. There has also been a concerted effort to maintain the district’s creative character, which flourished in the 1980s as artists moved into the abandoned warehouses and factory buildings. Design showrooms such as Kontrast, a furniture megastore covering more than 5000 m², and the multipurpose studio AtelierFrankfurt on Schwe-dlerstraße attest to this legacy. “There is no way the Eastside will ever become an artists’ quarter,” said sculptor Tobias Rehberger. “There aren’t enough artists in Frankfurt for that.
But for small agencies, design studios and internet companies the quarter is an exciting location.”The proliferation of luxury high-rise flats has been gener-ated by Germany’s residential boom, but some developers believe the market in Frankfurt is reaching saturation point. Though the city is a wealth generator in Germany, it lacks the firepower to persuade high earners to relocate from global metropolises such as London, Paris and New York. “We don’t have a Munich phe-nomenon,” Rainer Ballwanz, founder of Ballwanz Immo-bilien, told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung recently. “People who are looking to invest money in Europe and don’t have a connection with Frankfurt don’t think of investing here.” Iris Dilger, managing director of project developer Die Wohnkompa-nie, agreed: “Anything above €800,000 is hard to sell.”
Ostviertel
XII
It could be argued, however, that these concerns are the byproduct of Frankfurt’s grow-ing self-confidence. City plan-ners are daring to conceive of Europe’s financial capital as a place where the continent’s money makers aspire to live as well as work. In the words of project developer Ardi Goldman: “The Eastside now has so much variety, both in its architecture and its social mix, that it will never become a luxuriously sanitised, face-less quarter.”
What is the main concept behind the redevelopment of the Eastside area?When we started almost 30 years ago with the redevel-opment of Frankfurt-Ost end, the main objectives were the remodelling of the public space and especially the change from a harbour area
into a district with a greater number of apartments.
How does the redevelopment fit in with the plans for Frankfurt as a whole?Since Frankfurt is a growing city, all our efforts must lead to building more apartments. In recent years the Eastside has become a very attractive district and more and more people have moved here, so it became necessary to protect the residents against displacement. That means we have to improve the living area in the districts that are further from the city centre in order to take some pressure off areas like Frankfurt-Ost-end.
Frankfurt seems to be rediscovering its history and seeking inspiration from the past. How do you balance
this process with meeting the demands of a modern city?There is no contradiction. With our Dom-Römer-Project we are rebuilding a part of the histor-ic city centre. For me, it is not nostalgia, but what I call the culture of remembrance. Par-ticulary in a fast moving and dynamic city like Frankfurt, it is important for people to have a fixed point. Part of our local history can be experienced, without simply being a copy of the past.
How did you attract developers to become involved in this project? Did they have a lot of freedom in deciding what to build?We have set up a company for this project that builds a mixture of reconstructions and modern buildings. The spec-ifications are very tight. The demand for the homes was so great that we had to establish a lottery to pick the buyers.
What makes the Eastside attractive for investors compared to the rest of Frankfurt, or Germany?Frankfurt-Ostend is a highly attractive district, both for homes and for commercial enterprises. It’s very close to the city centre, situated on the Main, next to the new headquarters of the
European Central Bank. These are unique locational advantages.
What steps have you taken to improve the sustainability and desirability of the area?The public sector has invested €68 mln. Around 1,000 new housing units have been built and 300 have been modernised. Areas that were formerly used for the harbour have been transformed in parks, like the Weseler Werft, Ruhrorter Werft and Hafen-park. Moreover, the image of the area has completely changed: a liveable district has grown up.
What further development can we expect in the Eastside in future? Is the planned extension of the Ferdinand-Happ-Straße, for example, a realistic option?The extension of Ferdinand-Happ-Straße is a realistic option, yes. At this moment there are around 2,000 apartments being built or in the planning phase, for example in the so called Honsell Triangle, at the area of the former fire station 1, along Hanauer Landstraße and Ferdinand-Happ-Straße. Additionally we have quite a few projects for office or hotel use. O
Lighttower
Hafenpark Viertel
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THE NEW CAMPUS OF THE FRANKFURT SCHOOL OF FINANCE & MANAGEMENT WILL FORM PART OF FRANKFURT’S CITY CENTRE – AN ATTRACTIVE DESTINATION FOR TOURISTS, LOCALS, YOUNGSTERS AND ELDERLY PEOPLE.
F rankfurt School of Finance & Man-agement is moving from its East-side campus to a new home on the
Adickesallee, next to the student accom-modation building. The new campus, designed by Danish architectural firm Henning Larsen, is due to be completed in 2018 and will allow students to walk from their residence to their classroom in a few minutes.
The €100 mln development is part of the private research-led institution’s strat-egy to become one of Europe’s top five business schools in 2020. The building will have a total floor area of 42,000 m² and a capacity of 2,500 students, giving it scope to add around 1,000 students to the roll. A new lecture theatre, the Audimax, will seat 400, twice as many as the largest facility on the current cam-pus. In addition there will be 40 seminar rooms, 61 work areas and a canteen with seating for 200.“The Land [regional government] of Hes-sen offered us what would have been the finance ministry if Frankfurt had become the capital of West Germany instead of Bonn,” explains Professor
Udo Steffens, president of the business school. “We demolished the existing building and built a new campus that will enhance our research and teaching capacity by a factor of two.
“We see a chance to become one of the top schools in Europe, especially looking from the outside, as you see in Paris and Barcelona. Those are comparable institutions to what we have the chance to build in the next eight or nine years.”
Overseas students
The expansion has been fuelled by an increase in applicants from out-side Germany over the last two years. Overseas students made up half the new intake in 2015, with the 143 new-comers coming from 27 countries. The school has responded to this changing demographic by taking a more global approach to its programme: the Execu-tive MBA course, for example, is being taught entirely in English for the first time. Similarly, changes in the timetable will make it easier for students who are commuting from outside the Frank-furt-Main area.
Professor Stebbens says a supply of internationally qualified personnel is crucial for the long-term health of the economy. “If German companies want to fill their openings they need to have international candidates,” he says. “In Germany it’s been culturally more diffi-cult to create a bilingual institution. Even
at bachelor level the command of Eng-lish is not as developed in some parts of the administration as it should be.”
Modular design
The new campus’s modular design is highly flexible, allowing it to adapt to the changing needs of its users. The vari-ous learning zones, lecture halls, offices, event spaces and recreational areas are linked by a covered atrium that enables students to meet and mingle on site. The facade combines windows and closed panels arranged to accommodate sun-light, noise and wind conditions while optimising the view overlooking the city centre. Mechanical, sensor-controlled so-lar protection panels have been installed to prevent the building from overheating.
“Frankfurt is establishing itself as a good hub,” Professor Steffens says. “It isn’t dominated by the university in the way that places like Tubingen or Munster or Göttingen are, but the university is a good complement as far as the city is concerned.”The ambitions of the business school are integral to the city’s aspirations to cement its position as an international financial capital, he argues. “We think that education and research, the availa-bility of good schools and good univer-sities, are quite often underestimated as an economic factor in a city. If you don’t have good graduates and good talent available in the neighbourhood, how can you grow?” O
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