Is Benko’s empire crumbling? – Signa stops another mega project after Hamburg

The latest construction site – in the true sense of the word – is the sports arena on Königstrasse in Stuttgart. According to the “Stuttgarter Zeitung” (Monday edition), the planning agency Steidle Architekten from Munich received the announcement to interrupt the half-completed work planning for the new wooden hybrid building. Signa Retail’s multi-million dollar project provided 2,300 square meters of retail space and 5,000 square meters of office space.

Signa had already announced at the beginning of this year that the German department store chain Edeka Südwest would operate a complete store there on 1,500 square meters.

Another building in Stuttgart was sold to the city
Signa still owns a Galeria Kaufhof building in Stuttgart with a parking garage. According to the newspaper, a building with a parking garage was sold to the city a few months ago for 58.5 million euros. The sale of the new project to Munich-based Dibag AG was completed some time ago, but has not yet been confirmed. The newspaper quoted Dibag AG’s statement saying that people are fundamentally interested in properties in good locations in Stuttgart.

Construction senator threatens to demolish Elbtower
Last week it was announced on Friday that construction work on the Elbtower in Hamburg’s HafenCity has been temporarily halted. Construction company Lupp stopped construction of the high-rise with a planned height of 245 meters by about 100 meters. The building owner, Signa Prime Selection, did not pay on time, the newspapers said. The monthly construction costs for the one billion euro building amount to 25 million euros.

However, the shell construction company hopes to continue construction work soon. Discussions are ongoing with both Signa and Commerzbank subsidiary Commerz Real. But logistics entrepreneur Klaus-Michael Kühne, who, in addition to Commerz Real, has a 20 percent interest in the project, is also seen as a potential buyer and savior of the project. According to “bild.de”, Hamburg construction senator Karen Pein (SPD) threatened Benko with the demolition of the Elbtower if he did not continue its construction quickly.

The real estate purchase agreement initially agreed contractual penalties and then buyback rights for Hamburg for the property, as well as “extended access rights to the existing planning and construction contracts”. Because a sale or delivery by the city is unrealistic, demolition is the only option in the worst case, the newspaper said in its online edition.

Payments are also outstanding at Gänsemarktpassage
However, according to media reports, Signa is not only having problems with the prestigious building in HafenCity: Signa is also selling the Flüggerhaus on the Rödlingsmarkt and halting the construction of the Gänsemarktpassage. Christian Roggenbuck, director of construction company Max Hoffmann, told the “Abendblatt” about the Flüggerhaus.

“We stopped working at the end of last week because Signa payments were still outstanding. As long as we don’t get the money, we won’t continue working there,” they say. However, at the Gänsemarktpassage, the interruption of construction activity is due to a lack of office tenants.

Luxury department store in Vienna seems to be on track
Things apparently look better at the Viennese luxury department store Lamarr by Signa on Mariahilfer Strasse. Habau announced that the grenade was 99 percent complete. There are no problems either. Other companies involved in the building expansion also said they had no points of friction with Signa.