For years it has been said that René Benko is gradually buying up downtown Munich – now it seems to be going in the other direction: the real estate division of Benko’s Signa Group has recently been looking for buyers for two prominent properties, namely the building at Rosenstrasse 8 (formerly Kaut-Bullinger stationery store) and the department store at Rotkreuzplatz (formerly Kaufhof, now Galeria). Both properties are placed on the market via brokers. This was confirmed to the SZ from the real estate industry, previously the Evening News reported about it.
According to reports, Signa hopes to get around 100 million euros from each sale. It remains to be seen whether, in view of the mood of crisis on the market, buyers will be found at prices acceptable to Signa. It can also be heard from the industry that Signa does not have to stay with these two objects. In principle, the group, which the Austrian investor Benko built with a lot of borrowed capital, is open to purchase offers for all of its Munich real estate projects.
What are the motivations behind the targeted sales? And are properties such as the former Hertie department store on Bahnhofplatz, the “Corbinian” new building complex planned behind it, or the Old Academy also up for grabs? Signa left these and other questions unanswered on Wednesday.
Reports have been circulating for a few weeks that the Signa real estate division is struggling with problems and needs money. So far, it has been the corporate strategy to buy land and real estate in prime locations in thriving cities and to develop them further for the “Signa Prime Selection”.
The intended sale of the building on Rosenstrasse came as a particularly surprising surprise. Signa bought the property three years ago from the operators of Kaut-Bullinger for a reported 80 million euros. “The excellent location in the heart of Munich” promises “highest value stability”, explained Signa board member Tobias Sauerbier. The intention is to keep the property “in the portfolio for the long term”.
This is what the new building should look like on the site of Kaut-Bullinger on Rosenstrasse. Whether it will actually be built is now uncertain.
(Photo: Moriet & Brro)
Signa has since planned the construction of a new business and office complex. The design was twice an issue in the urban design commission, the project has now been approved – which at least theoretically means an increase in the value of the property. Whether the planned new building would be realized after a sale is uncertain.
The future of the department store on Rotkreuzplatz, which is of great importance for the Neuhausen district and was spared the recent wave of closures of Galeria locations, is now also uncertain. The department store group Galeria, which also belongs to Signa, still has a lease until the middle of the next decade. New construction plans for the area, which the Signa real estate division has already made, are therefore likely to be more medium-term.
Mayor Dieter Reiter (SPD) was surprised by Benko’s sales plans on Wednesday. He hopes that in the event of a sale “the department store on Rotkreuzplatz and thus the jobs will be preserved”. On Rosenstrasse, he hopes the new owners will have more retail space and less office space.