City of Hamburg repurchases Stormarnhaus from Real IS

City of Hamburg repurchases Stormarnhaus from Real IS

Landesbetrieb Immobilienmanagement und Grundvermögen (LIG), the state property management and real estate company owned by the Hamburg financial authority, has bought Wandsbek town hall from Real I.S. AG.

The acquisition has been approved by the Hamburg land zoning commission.

In 2006, the Senate of Hamburg sold the roughly 12,000 square-metre Stormarnhaus building as part of a deal referred to as the PRIMO package. Real I.S. purchased the building from alstria in 2010. Once the home of the local authority of Stormarn, for many years the building has housed the Wandsbek district authority, including the customer services centre. The building will continue to be used for the existing purpose.

‘The acquisition returns to our portfolio a building that the city of Hamburg has used for decades and will continue to use in the long term. The repurchase fits perfectly into our strategy of increasing the rate of municipal ownership through acquisitions, especially of buildings used by ourselves. Where individual opportunities arise for acquisitions on reasonable commercial terms, and where the municipal authorities have a significant interest in buying, we can reverse the unfavourable PRIMO deal entered into by the Senate in 2006. This is good news for the city and the district,’ says Dr Andreas Dressel, Senator for Finance and LIG Board Chairperson.

Thomas Ritzenhoff, head of the Wandsbek district authority, comments: ‘As the head of the Wandsbek district authority, I am especially pleased that the city has taken the Wandsbek town hall back into public ownership. Municipal infrastructure should be the property of the city. I would like to thank the Senator for Finance for his input.’

‘Real I.S. is grateful for the friendly cooperation and is continuing its long commitment to Hamburg by investing a total volume of around a billion euro in shopping centres, hotels and office space in different locations,’ adds Jochen Schenk, Chief Executive Officer of Real I.S. AG.

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