publity buys Karstadt HQ in Essen for own real estate portfolio

Frankfurt/Essen - publity AG (Scale, ISIN DE0006972508) has reached another milestone at the extension of its real estate portfolio. After it recently acquired the "St. Martin Tower" office building in Frankfurt am Main, publity now also takes over the Karstadt headquarters in Essen into its own portfolio. The total capital expenses for the acquisition and the planned fitting-out works of the property amount to around EUR 150 million.
 

The property in Essen-Bredeney with a total rental area of approximately 100,000 square metres was built between 1969 and 1975 and had been in the portfolio of a joint venture of publity with an institutional investor since mid-June 2016. publity was a co-investor to acquire the property for the joint venture portfolio and then took over the asset management of the property. Since then, publity has been able to develop the property very successfully and recently reached full letting. publity now pays off the joint venture partner and takes the property over into its own portfolio.
 

The anchor tenant of the property is the Karstadt department store group which exercised the option agreed upon in the lease contract in March 2019 and extended the rental area by around 8,000 square metres to around 38,000 square metres. The lease contract with Karstadt runs until 2028. Another lessee is the Essen police headquarters which entered into a lease contract over 30 years for an area of approximately 26,800 square metres in March 2018. It is planned to extensively improve the area for the police HQ. Building works started in March 2019 and are to be completed during the second quarter 2020. Zechbau acts as general contractor for the fit-out.
 

The purchasing and fit-out of the property is partly carried out with own funds of publity and financing provided by Hamburg Commercial Bank. Oceans & Company advised on financing.
 

Thomas Olek, CEO of publity AG: "We are very pleased that we have been able to extend our real estate portfolio so quickly with highly attractive office properties in premium locations and renowned lessees with a high credit rating. We will continue to develop the Karstadt HQ as planned in a targeted manner and as a result we will leverage considerable value creation potentials."

 

Press contact:
Financial press and investor relations:
edicto GmbH
Axel Mühlhaus/ Peggy Kropmanns
Tel.: +49 69 905505-52
E-mail: [email protected]

 

About publity
publity AG is an asset manager and investor specialising in office real estate in Germany. With the asset management of real estate and the realisation of non-performing loans (NPLs) the company has a solid basis for different market phases. Since 2018 publity has also built up an own portfolio of selected office real estate and fully benefits from the increase in the value of the properties.

The company covers a broad value chain from the acquisition to the development through to the sale of real estate and has a track record of several hundred successful transactions. publity is characterised by a strong network in the real estate sector as well as at the work out departments of financial institutions, has excellent access to funds for capital investments and conducts transactions quickly with a highly efficient process with proven partners. As co-investor, publity is, to a limited extent, involved in joint venture transactions. The shares of publity AG (ISIN DE0006972508) are traded in the Scale segment of the German Stock Exchange.