Ekkehard Streletzki, the owner of Berlin’s Estrel hotel, is planning to increase the height of the Estrel Tower and has launched an architectural competition to obtain a new design.
The 700-room hotel, located at Sonnenallee 228 in Berlin’s Neukölln district, currently has 50 floors and is 176m high. Once completed, it is expected that the enlarged building will be Berlin’s tallest non-technical structure.
“The idea is to permanently enhance our market position and to boost our established location in Berlin by expanding our hospitality and convention capacities on the grounds of the Estrel Berlin,” said Streletzki.
At the competition launch, town planners and architects were given 12 weeks to draft and submit their planning proposals. The Estrel Berlin is hosting the competition in cooperation with the borough council of Neukölln, Berlin’s city government, and the architects registration board of Berlin.
Additionally, the hotel management filed a planning application for a second convention and event hall adjacent to the hotel. Two new event facilities are planned to accommodate a total of 4,200 visitors; the total area of the new buildings will be nearly 8,500 m2.
The planned investment volume of the new event complex will be around €20m. Construction is scheduled to start in 2014, with the first phase to be completed by October 2014, and the second by summer 2015, the company said in a statement.
