The Hamburg luxury department store Alsterhaus is expected to change ownership. The family office of the Schoeller Group will take over the property together with a large German pension fund, the Schoeller Group announced. However, the transaction is still subject to regulatory reservations. The creditors would have to agree to this, said a spokesman. Initially, several media outlets reported.
The Schoeller Group is a group of companies based in Munich and Zurich that specializes, among other things, in reusable packaging. Family offices are companies that manage private assets.
The Alsterhaus belonged to the luxury real estate company of the Signa Group of the Austrian investor René Benko. Rising interest rates and construction costs as well as risky acquisitions such as those of the German department store groups Karstadt and Kaufhof had driven Signa into bankruptcy.
As insolvency administrator, Torsten Martini is responsible for some properties of the former Signa Group. When asked, Martini did not comment on the Schoeller Group’s announcement. According to his spokesman, Martini is sworn to secrecy.
The tenant of the property is KaDeWe GmbH, which also operates the KaDeWe in Berlin and the Oberpollinger in Munich. When asked, the head of KaDeWe GmbH, Timo Weber, said there was a long-term rental agreement. The operating company belongs to the Thai Central Group.
The purchase price of the Alsterhaus is not disclosed in the Schoeller Group’s announcement. The announcement also does not state by name which German pension fund is involved in the transaction.
