Tishman Speyer acquires prominent high-rise in Frankfurt for new investment manager
Tishman Speyer has acquired the Bürohaus an der Alten Oper, a high-rise building in Frankfurt, for a new German investment management platform (KVG), Tishman Speyer Investment Management (TSIM), which will launch and manage both open-ended and closed-end property Special Funds.
The first acquisition was made via a Special AIF on behalf of the German insurance group Versicherungskammer.
The seller of the asset is a special-purpose vehicle of the Mann group.
TSIM received a KVG license from the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) in May this year. The unit will be headed by Frank Schäfer and Nils Skornicka.
Schäfer has been a managing director at Tishman Speyer since June 2017 after having been recruited to establish and drive the development of the KGV and expand institutional business in Germany. Before joining Tishman Speyer, Schäfer worked for the Credit Suisse Group in Zurich and Frankfurt, most recently as global head product & business development in the real estate investment management division and as managing director of the Credit Suisse Asset Management Immobilien KAG in Germany. Skornicka has been with Tishman Speyer for seven years. He is responsible for transaction activities in Germany as managing director and head of acquisitions.
The high-rise building on Neue Mainzer Strasse 75, located in a park with undisturbed views of Frankfurt’s iconic old opera house, encompasses 20,900 square meters (225,000 square feet) of floor space, which is leased to 12 tenants, including financial service company Bloomberg, investment bank Lazar and law firm Herbert Smith & Freehills. Built in 1984, the property formerly known as Citi-Hochhaus was extensively renovated by the seller between 2015 and 2018. The 89 meter-tall building has received a LEED Gold sustainability certificate.
