US developer and property manager Tishman Speyer has signed a long-term lease for over 9.000 m[sup]2[/sup] at the Podium building in Frankfurt with the international legal practice Allen & Overy. The deal is one of the largest lease agreements signed in Frankfurt this year. The Podium building is part of the OpernTurm skyscraper and brings its pre-letting level to 75%, six months before the building’s completion.
US developer and property manager Tishman Speyer has signed a long-term lease for over 9.000 m2 at the Podium building in Frankfurt with the international legal practice Allen & Overy. The deal is one of the largest lease agreements signed in Frankfurt this year. The Podium building is part of the OpernTurm skyscraper and brings its pre-letting level to 75%, six months before the building’s completion.
The Podium building is located immediately adjacent to the Alte Oper (Old Opera) in Frankfurt. The deal was advised by Atisreal.
Markus Wiedenmann, Co-Head of Tishman Speyer in Germany, called the deal 'a positive sign for the Frankfurt real estate market'. 'This lease proves that high quality prospers, even in difficult financial markets such as these.'
Cornelius Fischer-Zernin, Senior Partner at Allen & Overy LLP in Germany commented: 'In addition to the outstanding location, modern office space and construction engineering, it was especially important to our employees that, following our exponential expansion over the last years, we find office space in a building which could be filled exclusively by Allen & Overy, a first in our law firm’s Frankfurt-based history.'
The 170-metre high OpernTurm will feature 66,000 m2 of rental space and is to be completed in the winter of 2009. It will be certified according to the LEED-Gold Green Building Rating System as one of the first office skyscraper developments of this kind in Europe. Tenants include UBS Deutschland, Allen & Overy, Ashurst, Morgan Lewis & Bockius and Excellent Business Centers. The design is by Frankfurt-based architect Professor Christoph Mäckler.
Tishman Speyer is one of the leading owners, developers, operators, and managers of first-class real estate in the world. The value of its portfolio is in excess of $72 bn (EUR 51.4 bn) and includes signature properties such as New York's Rockefeller Center, the Chrysler Center, the MesseTurm, Berlin's Sony Center and the OpernTurm. Tishman Speyer has been active in Germany since 1988, when they began development of the MesseTurm. Since then, Tishman Speyer has acquired and developed real estate in Germany totaling EUR 4 bn.
