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Model of the "T1" tower in Frankfurt: The 233 meter high office tower is to be built near Commerzbank headquarters (259 meters) by 2024
Photo: Groß & Partner
Allianz-Versicherung has acquired a new high-rise office building in downtown Frankfurt for the record sum of 1.4 billion euros.
The "T1" skyscraper is currently being built in the "Four" quarter of the banking district and, at 233 meters, is to become the third-highest office tower in Germany.
The Commerzbank headquarters (259 meters) and the trade fair tower (256.5 meters) are the tallest skyscrapers in the country on the Main.
Never before has a higher sum been paid for a single building in Germany, reports the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung", citing the major broker JLL.
As a single property, only "The Squaire" at Frankfurt Airport almost reached the billion mark.
4 towers, 600 apartments, two hotels, 1000 underground parking spaces
Two thirds of the space in T1 had already been given to tenants from the banking and consulting sector four years before the opening, announced the project developer Groß & Partner on Wednesday.
Completion is planned for 2024.
The Bavarian Chamber of Supply, which also takes care of the pension scheme for Bavarian doctors, pharmacists and architects, holds 50 percent of the tower as part of a joint venture like Allianz, but is only an investor, while Allianz has also taken over the administration.
The "Four" quarter comprises four towers with a height of 100 to 233 meters.
While offices are mainly being built in "T1", the other towers are to be built for around 600 apartments, including 78 socially supported apartments, and two hotels, according to the report.
An underground car park is to provide space for 1,000 cars under the quarter.
Despite home office: Landlord Allianz speculates on a full house from 2024
Investors do not see their problem as the fact that increased home offices after the corona shock could make a lot of office space superfluous.
The business center of Frankfurt is characterized by a low vacancy rate of 2.8 percent and limited office space until 2024 and has shown a high level of resilience during the pandemic, explained Nicole Pötsch from Allianz Real Estate.
"The fact that some of the leases for the 'Four T1' were signed during the pandemic underscores the attractiveness of the property and its location."
Insurers are increasingly investing in housing and logistics instead of offices
Will it stay that way? Pötsch should also have noticed that the Frankfurt office market is currently not doing well overall. Many companies were reluctant to enter into new and long-term leases in the face of the pandemic. Likewise, purchases and sales on the Frankfurt market with a transaction volume of 450 million euros in the first half of the year just reached a fifth of the long-term average, as JLL confirms according to the report.
At the same time, according to a survey by the consultant EY, the 30 largest German insurers are increasingly critical of office real estate as an investment and are increasingly relying on the allegedly more pandemic-resistant residential and logistics asset classes.
But it is also clear, according to EY, that real estate is playing an increasingly greater role for insurers than in the past from the point of view of yield and in view of the lowest capital market interest rates.
la / rei / dpa