RFR Holding buys Berlin’s Upper-West Tower, strong pre-lets

Berlin’s third-highest tower development, the 118m-tall Upper West Tower on the city’s Kurfürstendamm, has changed ownership after US property investor RFR Holding bought the asset from Austrian developer Strabag for a price thought to be around €250m.

The 33-storey development, on Breitscheidplatz in the popular Charlottenburg district of City-West beside the zoo, will have 53,000 sqm of lettable space including offices, shops, and what will be Motel One’s largest German hotel, with 580 rooms in 21,000 sqm of space. A further 25,000 sqm is dedicated to office space, with law firm Görg committing to take 5,000 sqm to house all their separate Berlin practice areas in one place. Retail will take up a further 5,500 sqm, while a spectacular 1,000 sqm Skybar with 360-degree is planned for the top floor. All in all, over 60% of the development has now been pre-let, and the building is expected to be completed at the beginning of 2017.

RFR Holding is based in New York, but was founded by the German-born Aby Rosen and Michael Fuchs. With over €10bn of real estate assets, the group has been a prominent German investor, owning the Bienenkorbhaus and Westendgate among others in Frankfurt, the Kaufmannshaus in Hamburg, and other landmark properties in Berlin and Nuremberg, along with prestigious properties such as the Gramercy Park Hotel, the Seagram Building and Lever House in New York.