Space Park in Bremen, Germany the leisure and retail scheme which closed last summer six months after it opened – has been put up for sale.
Cushman & Wakefield Healey & Baker has won the mandate to sell the €650m leisure and retail park on behalf of majority owner Dresdner Bank, which took over a 90% stake in the scheme from its fund management arm Degi.
The park troubled history has not deterred potential buyers, according to CWHB.
“There is serious interest from two dozen national, European and international investors,” said Martin Braun, head of corporate finance and an associate partner at CWHB in Frankfurt.
“We are now in the second phase of the sales process. There is no fixed deadline for a sale, but we don’t want it to continue into next year.”
Space Park was dreamt up in the 1990s by Wiesbaden-based developer Jürg Köllmann. The park’s space theme was inspired by Bremen’s importance as a centre of the European space programme.
The idea was that visitors could experience a simulation of space travel – and also visit the adjacent 44,000m² shopping centre.
Consultants calculated that up to 1.3m people a year from Germany, Scandinavia and the Benelux would visit Bremen. Braun now admits Space Park was in the wrong place for a tourist attraction. “The catchment area to the north is only water,” he said.
But the local authorities believed Space Park could help offset lost income from the city’s declining harbour and pumped €150m into the project.
Braun is confident that Space Park could be brought back to life by a new owner. “In today’s economic environment, nobody would develop such a project at its original costs,” he said. “So I can calculate rents based on lower visitor numbers and charge retailers lower rents.”
References: EGi News 04/02/05
