• ABG Real Estate Group to let 3,000 sqm
• 70 per cent of FRANZ office space already let
Munich/Frankfurt, 19 June 2023 – ABG Real Estate Group has entered into a long-term lease agreement with global consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal for approx. 3,000 sqm in its FRANZ building in the heart of Munich’s city centre (Sonnenstrasse 20), just shortly after the topping-out ceremony on 24 May 2023. Alvarez & Marsal are scheduled to move their German headquarters from the Lehel-District into the new premises in the first quarter of 2024, where they will not only benefit from the innovative “new work” office design, but also from the spacious outdoor areas in the inner courtyard together with parking spaces and a useful bicycle garage in the basement. 70 per cent of the FRANZ’s available office space has already been let.
Ulrich Höller, Managing Partner at ABG, said: “The FRANZ project is a first-class property located right in Munich’s city centre. It offers state-of-the-art amenities and can be adapted to fit all forms of modern work. We are thrilled that we are able to offer inspirational premises to a globally renowned consulting and auditing firm as its new German headquarters.”
Jürgen Zapf, Managing Director at Alvarez & Marsal, added: “We are pleased that we will soon be relocating our German headquarters to prime office space in the heart of the Bavarian capital. Our new headquarters will greatly improve our visibility and accessibility in the dynamic surroundings of Sonnenstraße and the nearby main railway station.”
Cushman & Wakefield Munich acted as real estate agent, and the Munich-based teams of Taylor Wessing (Alvarez & Marsal) and Heussen Rechtsanwaltsgesellschafts mbH (ABG Real Estate Group) provided legal advice.
The FRANZ project in Munich:
ABG, together with two occupational pension plans as joint venture partners, purchased the property in September 2021. Familiar to many from the popular 1980s television series “Monaco Franze”, the building is very close to Munich’s famous “Stachus” square. Construction work began in spring 2022. The existing 1950s seven-storey building has been gutted and revitalised in line with current high environmental and quality standards, offering a far better carbon footprint than if it had been demolished and rebuilt. A new three-storey building with floor-to-ceiling windows was added in the green inner courtyard: altogether, FRANZ will offer its residential and office users 5,000 sqm of highly flexible floor space, right in the heart of the city. Total investment volume amounts to approximately €70 million.
Details of the FRANZ project:
• The project’s name was inspired by “Monaco Franze”, a popular 1980s German television series: the programme was filmed using the original building at Sonnenstrasse 20, making the address well-known throughout Germany as the location for the title character’s private investigations firm.
• Built in 1953, the building housed residential and commercial users until 2020, with the vacancy rate rising steadily as the building aged. By September 2021 ABG and its joint venture partners, two occupational pension plans, were able to purchase the building gutted and unlet.
• The main building comprises seven upper storeys (including the ground floor) plus one basement level. The first five storeys are designed for flexible use and all types of new work, the two upper floors will offer space for eight light-flooded apartments, providing unique views of the city and the Alps, and the ground floor will house an attractive entrance vestibule and variable conference rooms. The building boasts not only a full-length terrace on the first floor at the back of the building, but also various balconies – and facing Sonnenstrasse, a new high-grade, sandstone-coloured travertine façade for storeys 1 through 5 contrasts with a distinctive, dark granite-coloured façade for the ground floor. The above-ground car parking spaces will be moved to the basement, accompanied by 22 bicycle spaces. This combined parking space will offer charging stations for electric cars and ten e-bikes.
• The main building will be complemented by a three-storey new-build with floor-to-ceiling windows on the side facing the green inner courtyard, offering bright and open top-quality office space.
• Munich-based architects Wolfgang Scherer Architekten and Schemmel Architekten are supporting the construction work which started in February 2022. Completion of the building is scheduled for the end of 2023, by which time it will have received a WiredScore and a BREEAM sustainability rating.
