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News

24.11.2021

Heaven or Hell?!

“Project developer and financier – match in heaven or door to hell?” – This was the motto of Heureka’s Managing Director Robert Waidhaas at the 8th Real Estate Finance Day on November 24, 2021. At the invitation of the conference organizers Targa Communications and Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, he engaged in a fictitious argument with Maik Rissel, Managing Director, aam2cred Debt Investments, in which he argued from the point of view of the project developer. The new and extremely entertaining format was extremely well received by the around 200 real estate and financial experts on site and the online viewers of the event; Continuation possible…

Photo credit: Frankfurt School Verlag

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25.10.2021

Dieter Schelbert joins Heureka Real Estate as partner and advisory board member

Heureka Real Estate GmbH is expanding its shareholder base to include Dieter Schelbert. Dieter Schelbert has held leading positions with major real estate companies for over 25 years, most recently as a Managing Partner of Stiller Immobilien. Dieter Schelbert is joining Harro Hellwege and Rainer Ballwanz as a member of the Advisory Board of Heureka Real Estate.

Robert Waidhaas, Managing Partner, comments: “In Dieter Schelbert, we are gaining not only a real estate expert who has successfully implemented projects in the residential and commercial sectors throughout Germany and has the corresponding experience, but also a personality with management skills and a high level of integrity. This completes the groundwork for the continued growth of the company.”

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14.09.2021

Heureka Real Estate acquires site in Heidelberg for hostel project

A Heureka Real Estate GmbH (Heureka) project company has acquired a 1,300 square metre site in the Weststadt district of Heidelberg, very close to the central railway station. The vendor is Kommunalprojekt ppp AG. ReedSmith acted as advisor to the purchaser.

Although the hospitality industry has been hit particularly hard by the negative effects of the Corona pandemic, the experienced Darmstadt-based developer is planning to construct a five-storey hostel with 112 rooms, providing a total of 320 beds. Construction is scheduled to start in mid-2022.

a&o Hostel GmbH, Europe’s largest privately-run hostel chain with 40 hostels in 24 cities, has already signed a 20-year contract to operate the new facility.

Robert Waidhaas, Managing Director of Heureka, comments: “Even in this very difficult time for the hotel industry, we at Heureka remain committed to our slogan Identifying potential – developing value’. Particularly in this challenging situation, we are confident that well-positioned and experienced market players like us are optimally placed to identify and exploit existing opportunities. What’s more, Heidelberg, one of the best-known tourist hotspots in Germany, is experiencing high demand from both users and operators. It remains in the focus of the real estate investors.”

Heureka has a track record boasting numerous projects successfully implemented and sold in the Rhine-Main region in recent years.

Copyright Foto: a&o Hostels GmbH

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11.08.2020

Heureka Real Estate acquires Frankfurt office building for conversion to short-term rental apartments

Heureka Real Estate GmbH (Heureka), Darmstadt, acquired an office building, at Eschersheimer Landstrasse 105-107 in the Frankfurt Westend, from Barings Real Estate. The company plans to convert the seven-floor building, situated close to the Banking District, to an ‘Apartmenthaus’ (apartments for short-term rental). Planning consent has already been granted.
Reed Smith Rechtsanwälte advised Heureka on the transaction. Co-investor of the project development is PRIMUS Vermögensverwaltungs GmbH with its managing director Lars Borghaus.
It is planned to create 77 furnished apartments, having a total residential floor area of 2,349 square metres, with 11 underground parking spaces and 81 cycle stands in the basement. The individual residential units, which will be fitted out to a high standard, will range from 20 to 50 square metres in floor area.
Construction is scheduled to start during 2020. Lars Borghaus has been appointed as managing director of the project company responsible for the conversion works. After completion of the project, it is planned to sell it to an investor.
Robert Waidhaas, managing director of Heureka and also a director of the project management company, comments: “With this latest acquisition, we are enhancing the Frankfurt market by adding a unique residential property in the business apartment segment. Due to its location and facilities, it will attract a demanding tenant clientele looking for temporary accommodation”.
Heureka has a track record of numerous successfully implemented projects in the Rhine-Main region in recent years.

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31.01.2020

Heureka sells its interest in the "Zollhafen Mainz" project

Heureka Real Estate GmbH has sold its stake in the new “Zollhafen” district of Mainz to a private investor. Heureka Development, the development company in the Heureka Group, was in charge of the project and planning management, bringing the project to readiness for development and securing the grant of planning consent.

On completion, scheduled for 2021, the development will combine residential, working, café/restaurants, a hotel and shopping facilities in a central location in Mainz, the capital of Rhineland-Palatinate. Together with a partner, Heureka had acquired the “Rheinallee I” development site from CA Immo and Mainzer Stadtwerke AG in October 2017.

The project on the 6,400 square metre “Rheinallee I” site will include around 40 upmarket condominium apartments, almost 80 rental apartments and a ca. 200-room hotel. A total floorspace (GEA) of 17,000 square metres can be constructed on the site.

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05.12.2019

Robert C. Waidhaas as Expert at the 6th Real Estate Finance Day 2019

For the first time, the discussions and presentations at the 6th Real Estate Finance Day in Frankfurt in November 2019 included a global focus. The views of Asian institutional investors on the German real estate market, the zero interest rate environment and digital fund management were among the topics discussed by 270 experts from the financial and real estate sector, in panels, lectures and workshops. The multi-sector congress was organised by Frankfurt School Verlag and Targa Communications.

The organisers once again invited Robert C. Waidhaas as an expert to discuss current problems facing the property and finance industry with the participants, in the framework of a workshop. The subject of the workshop, which he organised in association with Dr. Christopher Yvo Oertel, Head of Finance & Capital Markets at aamundo Fund Management, a broker of mezzanine finance, was “Mezzanine loans in a dramatically changing banking environment”. Waidhaas, the Managing Director of Heureka Real Estate, gave a clear and informative elucidation of the risks and opportunities that arise for developers when financing construction projects and, in particular, when raising venture capital.

Photo credit: Frankfurt School Verlag

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11.12.2018

Robert C. Waidhaas as Expert at the 5th Real Estate Finance Day 2018

(from left to right: René Reif, Robert C. Waidhaas, Guido Gerstner)

At the 5th Real Estate Finance Day in Frankfurt, in November 2018, more than 200 representatives of the real estate and finance industry discussed topics such as how the competitive market environment will affect project financing, whether crowdfunding can be a financing alternative in the future and how the relationship between the bank and the developer is changing. Robert C. Waidhaas was invited as an expert by the event organisers Frankfurt School Verlag and Targa Communications. Moderated by René Reif, CEO of René Reif Consulting GmbH, and in dialogue with Guido Gerstner as the representative of the banking side, he gave an entertaining account of the challenges that sometimes occur in the planning and structuring of project finance and how these can be mastered. His credo: with competence, accurately prepared documentation and the necessary drive, many things are possible – and, above all, within a reasonable time. In his view this is urgently necessary, because interesting investment properties are highly sought-after and therefore call for swift action, says the managing director of Heureka Real Estate GmbH.

 

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21.11.2018

Heureka gains new shareholders and restructures company

Darmstadt, 21 November 2018 – Heureka Real Estate GmbH (Heureka) is the name of the new holding company, under the umbrella of which all the property developer’s project companies will now operate. Heureka Development GmbH will continue as an independent service company, carrying out project management and control.

Heureka’s new shareholders are Harro Hellwege, managing director of Merkur Development, Russelsheim, and Rainer M. Ballwanz, managing director of Ballwanz Immobilien, Frankfurt. The two entrepreneurs, with their considerable real estate experience, are joining Heureka’s newly found-ed advisory board, advising managing directors Robert Waidhaas and Andreas Rossmann on the conception of new projects, maintaining contacts with officials, banks and investment companies, and on the recruitment of new staff.

Robert Waidhaas and Andreas Rossmann act as the sole managing directors of both Heureka and Heureka Development GmbH.

The new company structure enables Heureka competently to deal with the ever-increasingly larger and more complex projects. The company will be more broadly positioned in the future and will also focus on the hotel, micro-apartment and office sectors. In the course of this, both staff num-bers and the target project volume will increase significantly.

Heureka has already successfully completed numerous residential projects, such as “Neroblick” in Wiesbaden and “Bessunger Logen” in Darmstadt. In association with a project partner, it acquired the Rheinallee I site in Mainz during the past year. 17,000 square metres of gross floor area are developable on the around 6,400 square metre site, which is opposite the Kunsthalle Mainz. In addition to the planned residential development, around 6,500 square metres are earmarked for commercial occupation. A hotel is planned.

(The attached photo shows from left to right: Andreas Rossmann and Robert Waidhaas)
Photocredit: Heureka

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26.01.2018

Heureka Development and SORAVIA announce winning design for Rheinallee I construction site in Mainz

Mainz, 26 January 2018 – Darmstadt-based Heureka Development and SoReal of Vienna, a subsidiary of SORAVIA, have jointly carried out an architectural competition for the southernmost building site on the Rheinallee, in the Zollhafen district of Mainz.

In 17,000 square metres BGF (≈GEA) of floorspace, a hotel and a mixture of condominium and rental apartments are to be built on the site opposite the Kunsthalle, directly adjoining the forthcoming southern access to the district. The total project volume is estimated at around 56 million Euro. Construction is scheduled to start in the first half of 2019.

Seven renowned architectural firms, four of them from Germany and three from Austria, took part in the competition. The judging panel, chaired by Prof. Eugen Bruno of Darmstadt, unanimously awarded first prize to the design by the Hamburg-based architects KBNK. In second place was the design by gmp architects, also from Hamburg. The third place went to the AllesWirdGut practice, from Vienna. The concept by Coop Himmelb(l)au, of Vienna, was given a commendation.

In the winning design, the panel was particularly impressed by the idea of positioning the hotel as a free-standing six-storey building facing the Kunsthalle. The rental and condominium apartments are arranged in the adjoining buildings to the north, with the owner-occupied apartments overlooking the harbour basin. The consistent five-storey arrangement of the apartments was recognized as a special feature of the design. It means that the largest section of the building is one storey lower than the other new buildings on Rheinallee.

Andreas Rossmann, Managing Director of Heureka Development, is very pleased with the result. “The concept by the first-prize winner is highly responsive to both the overriding urban development objectives and our usage requirements”. Jasmin Soravia, Managing Director of SoReal, adds: “The KBNK design provides us with an excellent starting point for the further planning and implementation of this important project in Mainz Zollhafen”.

Subsequent to the competition, the plans for the prize-winning design are to be further developed. The developers currently estimate that realisation of the project will commence in the first half of 2019.

All the designs will be on display in the Weinlagergebäude, on the ground floor of Taunusstrasse 61 in Mainz Zollhafen, between 14:00 and 18:00 on Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 January 2018.

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13.10.2017

"Rheinallee I" development site in the Zollhafen district in Mainz sold to Heureka Development and SORAVIA

  • 17,000 sq m GEA of residential and hotel planned, opposite the Kunsthalle

Mainz, 13 October 2017 – The Zollhafen investors CA Immo and Mainzer Stadtwerke AG have sold the Rheinallee I site along the Rheinallee in Mainz, to a consortium of Heureka Development (Darmstadt) and SORAVIA (Vienna).

The sale of the site opposite the Kunsthalle Mainz, which totals around 6,400 sq m, was recently notarised. 17,000 sq m of floor area (GEA) is developable and, as well as residential, around 6,500 sq m is earmarked for commercial uses, for which a hotel is planned.

Construction should start in early 2019, with completion scheduled for 2021.

Olaf Heinrich and Jakob Vowinckel, directors of Zollhafen Mainz GmbH & Co. KG, are delighted that the Rheinallee axis has been fully sold. “Now that we have been able to place Rheinallee I profitably on the market, all the sites are now sold – from the Kunsthalle to the Fire Station in the north.

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