Part of Signa Prime

Interested parties for Elbtower site in Hamburg

The Elbtower shell in Hamburg(Bild: APA/dpa/Marcus Brandt)

There are already several interested parties for the Elbtower shell in Hamburg's Hafencity. On May 1, the city registered its repurchase right with the insolvency administrator of the Austrian Signa Group.

As the City of Hamburg has no say in the current sales process, this step has become necessary, said Karen Pein (SPD), Senator for Urban Development. She did not even know who had applied to the insolvency administrator to continue building the Elbtower.

The land could be bought back, for example, if the insolvency administrator preferred an investor that the city would not consider. This would effectively make the city the new owner of the billion-euro project. There is still time until the end of January 2025 to find someone. If Hamburg wants to remain in control of the process, it must buy the property before the nine months are up.

Standstill since October
There is no lack of interest from investors - several are said to have already registered. The Elbtower was supposed to be the finishing touch to HafenCity. However, the construction site has been at a standstill since October. The construction company had stopped work at a height of 100 meters because the Signa Group, owned by Austrian real estate entrepreneur René Benko, had not paid invoices. The company filed for insolvency in January of this year.