Allianz purchase of Skyper building tells a Frankfurt tale

Here’s an illustrative example of how a top Frankfurt office property has fared since the heady pre-crisis days.

Allianz Real Estate, the property arm of the German insurance giant, has just bought the prominent Skyper office high rise in Frankfurt for €300m from a property fund managed by UBS Real Estate, the German property fund manager of the Swiss banking group.

Allianz RE was buying the 54,100 sq.m. Skyper office complex in Frankfurt’s banking district for various Allianz companies, it said in a release. This brings Allianz RE Germany’s total assets under management now to €5.8bn. “With the Skyper building we’re adding another outstanding asset to the real estate portfolio of Allianz, following our growth strategy”, said CEO Stefan Brendgen.

It certainly seems like they got a good deal. In 2006, UBS bought the asset for €400m from German Dekabank, which in turn had paid €472m a year before. The Skyper complex has obtained LEED Gold sustainability certification and includes a 38-storey tower, a six-storey building with shops and offices, both built in 2005, and the former listed Villa Holzmann, built in 1913 and refurbished in 1994.

Retail and residential space take up 10% of the Skyper complex. Largest business tenants include the German Bundesbank, Deka Investmentfonds, HSBC and law firms Bird & Bird and Weil Gotshal & Manges.

We know the building well and pass it several times a week. From €472m to €300m in eight years for a spanking new office building in booming Frankfurt. Good heavens.