Berlin Hyp funds Hamburg tower development

Berlin Hyp has provided a loan of €80.6 million to finance the development of a residential and hotel tower scheme in Hamburg.

The scheme, which is being developed by Hamburg-based firm ABG Group, is based in the inner-city St Georg area. The loan, which has a three-year term, has been written to ABG Allgemeine Bauträgergesellschaft mbH & Co Objekt Worringer Straße KG.

The scheme will comprise two adjacent buildings, fronting Adenauerallee and Kurt-Schumacher-Allee. A 7,700 square metre tower will contain a 277-room hotel, which is to be branded as a Courtyard by Marriott hotel. The adjacent 17-storey high residential tower will contain 113 apartments combining to 8,000 square metres.

The scheme is due to be completed in late 2018.

ABG bought the site in March with the aim of developing a four-star hotel and apartments as well as underground car parking. The plans for the scheme have been designed by architect Störmer Murphy & Partners. The site has planning consent for around 23,000 square metres of development.

During the first half of 2016, only 7 percent of Berlin Hyp’s real estate lending was to developers, with 78 percent of new lending to investors and 15 percent to housing associations.

Announcing its half-year results earlier this month, Berlin Hyp reported that it had written €2.9 billion of new lending during the first half of 2016, an increase from the €2.2 billion originated during the same period last year. However, half-year profit before tax and transfer to shareholders was down 21.3 percent to €31.4 million compared with the same period last year, in line with the bank’s prediction that it would not match last year’s profits in 2016.

The uptick in lending, which included extensions to existing loans, came despite a sharp decline in margins compared with the first six months of 2015. The bank added that it has not changed its risk conduct.

“In spite of fierce competition and a noticeable increase in pressure on margins, we still recorded an extremely satisfactory half-year result,” said Berlin Hyp’s chairman of the board, Jan Bettink.