Curzon buys Frankfurt's Garden Tower, Cornerstone co-investor

Curzon Capital Partners IV (CCP IV), a core-plus fund advised by pan-European real estate investment manager Tristan Capital Partners, has bought the Garden Tower, a prominent 27,500 sqm multi-tenant office tower in Frankfurt’s banking district for €175 million. The German management team at Cornerstone Advisors is co-investing in the deal with Cornerstone handling asset management.

Garden Tower is 126 metres tall and consists of 27 floors above and five below ground, built on a site of around 2,141 sq.m. The building was constructed between 1973 and 1976 as the headquarters of Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen (Helaba) before the bank moved to the nearby Main-Tower in 1999, and was one of the first high-rise buildings in Frankfurt’s financial district.

During 2003-2005 under the planning of KSP Architects, the tower was stripped back to its concrete skeleton and contemporary building services were fitted, a new glass façade and interior fittings were installed. When it re-opened in 2006, Garden Tower qualified for a “Very Good” BREEAM green building certificate. 

The building serves as Société Générale’s headquarters in Germany and the bank occupies the 11th to 16th floors, while investment advisory group Deutsche Vermögensberatung AG is the second largest tenant. Other tenants include Cerberus Capital Management, Huxley Associates, The Bank of New York Mellon and Frankfurter Sparkasse 1822 Private Banking.

As in the past, the management team of asset management and repositioning specialist Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers has co-invested alongside CCP IV, similarly to several other previous deals in Germany by other funds advised by Tristan.