• 13,400-square-metre site near main railway station the largest single investment in the history of the project developer
• Decision on detailed use to be taken upon completion of the urban development ideas competition
• Start of construction planned for early 2020

(Stuttgart, 15 January 2018) P+B Group (St. Augustin, Frankfurt am Main), which specialises in project development, has acquired one of the most attractive sites in Stuttgart's city centre – the Old Railway Directorate (Alte Bahndirektion) development site. The seller of the property with a total area of almost 13,400 square meters in the direct vicinity of the main railway station is the Stuttgart project developer W2 Development GmbH, which together with the investment and asset manager Competo Capital Partners GmbH from Munich has initiated the previous procedural steps for the urban development of the area and will complete them in cooperation with the city of Stuttgart. The purchase was certified in the previous year, just before Christmas. For P+B Group, which already has many years of experience in Stuttgart and is currently developing one of the most sensational residential projects in Germany – the Porsche Design Tower in Frankfurt am Main – it is the largest single investment in the company's history to date. As Gerd Hebebrand, Managing Director of P+B Group comments: "Due to the neighbouring major project of Stuttgart 21 alone, the development area is one of the absolute top locations in the state capital of Baden-Wuerttemberg. We are very pleased that we are able to shape the future of this historic area with our partners". All that remains of the site today is the listed and currently vacant head building of the railway directorate and an operational facility leased to the railway company. The parties have agreed not to disclose the selling price.

The property currently owned by Deutsche Bahn AG for its construction work on the Stuttgart-21 project is located between the intersection of Heilbronner Strasse and Jaegerstrasse. At present, Ed. Züblin AG, which has a close cooperation with P+B Group, is building the so-called northern head of Stuttgart-21 on both this and the neighbouring properties. In parallel, an urban planning ideas competition was launched in cooperation with the city in order to concretise the building law for the area around the project site, the results of which will be available by the end of February 2018. Gerd Hebebrand: "We shall wait for the results of the urban planning ideas competition and then examine the corresponding possible ways of use. Basically, commercial, residential and hotel facilities are permitted on the site. We aim to obtain one or more building permits before the site is handed over to us by Deutsche Bahn at the start of 2020. And we will do this together with our partners". On the basis of the competition results, a new development plan will be drawn up for the area of the Old Railway Directorate as well as for the space along Jaegerstrasse and Kriegsbergstrasse that rounds off this area. This new plan was already initiated in the context of the official project approval last year. As W2 Development GmbH had previously been responsible for both processes, P+B Group continued to entrust the Stuttgart-based company with the overall management of the project. Stefan Willwersch, architect and co-owner of W2 Development GmbH comments: "We are very pleased that with P+B Group we have found a renowned and competent buyer who has a strong track record in the development of large-scale projects. The development of this urbanistic fillet piece of our city is still very dear to us. That is why we have gladly responded to the new owner's request to continue to assume responsibility in the future with our experience and local roots as a Stuttgart project developer".

Experience in the Stuttgart market
P+B Group, which has already realised real estate projects throughout Germany with a total volume of more than 600 million euros, can also look back on many years of experience in the Stuttgart market and has a grown network of partners in that area, including the seller. In addition to the Alexanderstrasse residential project and a student residence in Stuttgart-Vaihingen, which P+B realised together with the architects Willwersch Architekten, the group is currently planning a hotel project with more than 500 beds – also in the Vaihingen district. In total, P+B is currently planning projects with a total volume of around 700 million euros.

Expertise meets passion
Founded more than 15 years ago, P+B Group is a bank-independent property developer specialising in the development of real estate in various utilisation categories – from residential to hotel usage. The group is primarily active in the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg and the Rhine-Main region (Hesse) and constructs real estate for its own use as well as for private and institutional investors. One of the company's largest real estate projects is the "Parkend" residential project in Frankfurt's Europaviertel district with 816 residential units, which is currently nearing its final completion. P+B Group always attaches great importance to a reliable cooperation with local authorities and contractual partners.

You can contact the project team at www.bahndirektion-stuttgart.de

About the previous owners and project managers

W2 Development GmbH
W2 Development GmbH was founded in 2008 by the architect Stefan Willwersch and the businessman Frank Widmann. The office consists of a team of architects and real estate experts. Since then, mainly commercial real estate projects with a total volume of around 100 million euros have been successfully realised and sold. Projects with a total volume of 220 million euros are currently under construction and further projects worth more than 230 million euros are in the planning phase.

Competo Capital Partners GmbH
Competo Capital Partners GmbH is an independent, owner-managed investment and asset management company. Its core competencies include individually tailored investments in German project developments with equity and mezzanine loans as well as long-term investments in existing properties. In this context, Competo supports a small and selected number of institutional investments, almost exclusively in the fields of foundations and family businesses. In project developments, Competo Capital Partners participates with equity and mezzanine loans in selected real estate developments by experienced developers in Germany in the office, residential, logistics and retail sectors via the "Competo Development" investor community it manages. On average, the company's investment portfolio comprises around 15 equity investments with an investment volume of around 800 million euros and roughly 10 mezzanine investments with an investment volume of around 400 million euros. As an asset and investment manager, Competo currently manages a portfolio of 12 properties with an investment volume of approximately 600 million euros in the Munich, Hamburg, Stuttgart and Ulm locations.