For Elisabeth Merk it is a good reason to remember Hans-Jochen Vogel again. In 1967, as Mayor of Munich, he laid the foundation stone for the construction of the new Neuperlach district. A good 50 years later, the city planning officer said at a ceremony this week, Vogel wished to go on an excursion to Neuperlach again. Back then, it must have been 2019, of course they also passed Hanns-Seidel-Platz, opposite the Pep shopping center, which for decades was just a gravel parking lot and now a huge construction site. “He looked at me with a smile,” Merk continues, “and he said: You have to be very old to see what is possible in urban development.” It was probably Vogel’s last excursion, a year later he died.
The occasion Merk told the story was the opening of the “Perlach Plaza”, a construction project with shops, restaurants and a hotel on three floors (one of them underground) and 110 rental apartments above, plus a building with 104 apartments for students right next to it . The project is intended to bring new life to Neuperlach with other residential complexes behind it, some of which have already been occupied and some are still being built. In addition, it closes the decades-old urban planning wound, at least to a large extent.
Because Neuperlach is still waiting for the cultural center that has also been planned for decades and is to be built on a still fallow construction site on Hanns-Seidel-Platz. The city councilor is not responsible for the construction and operation of the center, but used her speech to set a goal for the city: “We want to lay the foundation stone in 2026,” said Merk. She later added that the center could then go into operation in 2028. It was an announcement that caused a great response among Neuperlach connoisseurs. It remains to be seen whether there will be any consequences. First of all, the city wants to advertise temporary cultural use on the gravel area.
The building was sold for around 250 million euros
If you come from the north via Thomas-Dehler-Straße into the center of Neuperlach, the “Plaza”, which has been gradually occupied for a few weeks, catches the eye from afar with its arches, which cover the ground floor and first floor and partly also covered places. With the arches, the intention was to quote “classic base zones of well-known squares and markets”, says Andreas Marth from the “Alles wird gut” architects’ office, describing the concept of the building complex. At the same time, the arches acted as a “table” for the upper floors with apartments. This mixture of commercial and residential areas is one of the goals of today’s urban planning, because one hopes to create more lively quarters than in the past when – for example in the previous Neuperlach – residential and commercial areas were accommodated in different building complexes.
“There have always been high demands on the project,” says Melanie Hammer, Managing Director of the BHB Group from Grünwald, one of two investors who implemented the project. “But the demands have changed over time, the residential part has become much higher than originally planned.”
The partner investor of the BHB, which has already built 174 condominiums on neighboring properties, is Concrete Capital (also from Grünwald), behind which stands the car racer and entrepreneur Hubert Haupt as a co-partner. BHB and Concrete are completing the “Perlach Plaza”, but sold the property two years ago to a fund of the KGAL Group, which – almost logically – is also based in Grünwald. The price was about 250 million euros.
The restaurants can also be visited outside of shop opening hours.
(Photo: Catherine Hess)
It looks like it could be a worthwhile investment. The hotel of the brand “Ibis Styles” with 172 rooms has started operations. The rental apartments are largely taken, both subsidized and privately financed, which have come on the market for prices per square meter from 19 euros upwards. According to Peter Fritsche, Managing Director and also a shareholder of Concrete Capital, the student apartments, which were available with full equipment and shared use of co-working areas and a roof terrace for 780 to 900 euros, have also gone completely. Almost full occupancy has also been achieved for the retail space, says Fritsche. Attempts have been made to locate shops that do not yet exist in neighboring Pep.
Another benefit for Neuperlach: Unlike Pep, which is closed after 8 p.m. and on Sundays and public holidays, which means that the bars are also deserted, you can also eat out at Plaza outside of opening hours.