The first word belongs to Klaus Everest. In a sense, he has been living on this construction site ever since it was still a ruin of the German economic miracle. Until the Quelle mail order company went under in 2009, the huge building complex on the outskirts of Nuremberg was simply called the shipping center, in keeping with its function. Today it is called “The Q”. Nevertheless, in the past few weeks it was not certain whether everything here would not become a ruin again, a ruin from the construction boom of the past few years. But now it is clear: things continue. “We are building again, and we are now finishing building,” said Everest on Tuesday in the middle of the major construction site. “We can do this.” He stands on an improvised stage and alternately calls everything “my baby” or “a task of the heart”.
On September 11th, it was Klaus Everest who had to stop the work and suddenly send the companies involved and their employees home. Because “The Q” is a project by the Düsseldorf-based Gerch Group, a large real estate developer that had to file for bankruptcy a few days earlier. With some delay, the payment difficulties also affected the project company for the Nuremberg mammoth project, along with other construction sites. The Gerch Group and the Bavarian Supply Chamber (BVK), which had already purchased the first construction phase, argued over money and the negotiations failed. And from one moment to the next, one of the largest renovation projects in Europe stopped working.
In the wake of the crisis in construction
Just a few weeks after the topping-out ceremony, the gigantic complex with its original 255,000 square meters of floor space threatened to turn from promise into problem – once again. The Gerch Group was hit hard by the construction crisis, the buyer of another major project didn’t pay and the company got into trouble. Just like many others in the industry. The Ifo Institute recently reported that a number of orders are being canceled, in September alone by more than one in five residential construction companies – a record figure. The shock is now so deep that the mood in construction is worse than ever since Munich economic researchers began their business climate surveys in 1991.
And the listed area in Nuremberg is a particularly difficult case. Since Quelle’s demise, it has continued to cause problems. The huge property lay largely unused for years and was rapidly falling into disrepair. During this time, Klaus Everest moved here as the top administrator of the almost deserted monster. He also met his wife here, and that alone will always connect him with everything here, he says.
Construction manager Klaus Everest, here in a picture from autumn 2022, has a close relationship with the old Quelle shipping center.
(Photo: Florian Peljak)
In 2015, a Portuguese company took over the entire area, well below the estimated value, and the main aim was to create a shopping center. The plan failed and nothing worked on Fürther Strasse for a long time. Then in 2018 Gerch joined. The plan: The colossus was to be dismantled into parts, hollowed out and completely rebuilt. The master plan provides for more than 1,000 apartments, offices, shops, restaurants, a daycare center and a hotel. The city of Nuremberg was to move into the first section, towards the front of the street, with a social welfare office, youth welfare office, passport office, migration office and vehicle registration office. There should also be retail and an underground car park. When the renovation began, Klaus Everest became construction manager.
This was originally supposed to cost 700 million euros, but the sum has long since become unrealistic. With the Russian attack on Ukraine, all plans were thrown into disarray. First, the costs of energy and building materials skyrocketed, then interest rates also rose at a previously unknown pace. Since July 2022, the European Central Bank has raised its key interest rate from zero to 4.5 percent in the fight against inflation. This has left a deep mark: loans have become significantly more expensive, and at the same time real estate prices are coming under pressure – especially for office buildings. Because even when the corona pandemic is over, millions of employees still regularly prefer to work from home rather than drive to the company. A trend that is unlikely to reverse so quickly and is causing investors and tenants to hesitate.
The first part should be finished in 2025
The fact that the BVK can now celebrate the new start after just 43 days is also due to a very special constellation: The Supply Chamber is an authority of the Free State of Bavaria and, according to its own information, runs the company’s entire business as the “largest public supply group in Germany”. twelve professional and municipal pension institutions. And there is already a tenant for the rooms: the city. “It continues,” says a relieved Mayor Marcus König (CSU).
1,400 employees will occupy a total of 60,000 square meters here. “A community center as a model for the future,” says König. It should be ready in spring 2025 – if nothing else comes up. Five weeks after the construction stop, at least 80 percent of the construction work has now been reassigned, it was said on Tuesday. A new project developer, Accumulata Real Estate, is also on board; the two companies Zech and Wayss & Freitag will continue to implement the construction.
But all of this only applies to the first, commercial construction phase of the old shipping center, i.e. the part with office and retail space. The BVK only bought that. Another part has already been sold to another investor and apartments are to be built here. The Gerch Group is still looking for buyers for the remaining two construction phases in the complex. How and when things will continue here is still unclear, the company says. Klaus Everest is still happy. His “heartfelt task” remains with him for now. And that’s what counts for him.