Hamburg’s Elbtower will soon celebrate its first birthday as a torso – in October 2023, work on the half-finished skyscraper was stopped due to payment difficulties of the Austrian Signa Group.
The original budget for the major project was 950 million euros. “I want the Elbtower to be completed,” said German investor Klaus-Michael Kühne to the “Hamburger Abendblatt”. A consortium is being formed at full speed.
Only together with other investors as part of a consortium would Kühne, who has already lost a three-digit million sum in the wake of Signa’s downfall, invest more money to complete the building. “Three or four parties are needed, ideally with equal participation in the renovation.” The financially strong investor did not want to give any precise details of the sum still missing. “One thing is clear: the capital requirement is several hundred million euros.”
Possible comrade-in-arms
He may already have a fellow campaigner: According to the newspaper, Hamburg construction investor Dieter Becken has long shown interest in continuing construction of the Elbtower in HafenCity. Now he has surprised North German Broadcasting (NDR) by saying that he already has an anchor tenant for it. Becken recently estimated the investment requirement at 500 to 600 million euros. “That could be a bit more expensive now. But more than 300 million euros have already been invested,” said Kühne, according to the “Hamburger Abendblatt”.
Becken is negotiating with various Hamburg investors and is confident that if the contract is awarded, construction will begin within three months and the skyscraper will be completed within four years, according to the newspaper. However, he is still lacking 40 percent of the equity capital.
Kühne on the current status of negotiations regarding the consortium: “There is Commerz Real, which owns a share in the Elbtower, there is Signal Iduna, which is heavily involved, there is Dieter Becken and one or two others who are definitely interested.” There is not yet a consortium, but there are ideas, interests, relationships and discussions.
The insolvency administrator wants to have completed the sales process for the skyscraper by the end of the year – the purchase contracts are to be signed in the autumn.
