Erik Ebenbauer

Hamburg, 4 June 2020. The project developers at QUEST Investment Partners have sold a prestigious commercial property in Berlin with 4,000 m2 of office space to KanAm Grund Group as part of a forward deal. The property will become part of KanAm’s open-ended real estate fund ‘LEADING CITY INVEST’. The traditional Kontorhaus building at Charlottenstraße 82 is a true classic and features a listed, sculptured façade. It was designed for Iduna Versicherung in 1913 by the architect Paul Mebes, a member of the Prussian Academy of Arts. QUEST Investment Partners acquired the iconic seven-storey landmark in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district at the end of 2019. “Thanks to the good location, superb architectural design by Paul Mebes and our refurbishment concept, we were able to find a suitable tenant for the entire building in a very short time. At the same time, we succeeded in selling the property as part of a forward deal with a building obligation,” explains Jan Rouven Künzel, Managing Partner at QUEST Investment Partners. The parties agreed not to disclose the sales price.

Monument protection meets contemporary elements
The implementation of the planned measures for the renamed C82 will begin in the third quarter of 2020. The building is expected to be ready for occupancy by autumn 2021 at the latest. The refurbishment concept was elaborated in cooperation with the architecture and consulting firm CSMM and comprises the common areas with a redesigned entrance foyer as well as the historical staircases and parts of the office areas. The walls and ceilings are decorated with high- quality wooden slats in organic shapes. This new design element generates a fascinating spatial dialogue with the historical building, creating a new, holistic appearance. In the foyer, the new design elements will provide a deliberate contrast to the rectangular historical building stock. The façade of the listed courtyard with its restored glazed clinker bricks and red terracotta ornaments will be treated and cleaned – both the material and the colours will lend it a very special flair. In addition, the building, which was renovated in 1998 in line with the standards of monument preservation, will receive modern technical equipment and new heating and cooling systems. As part of the refurbishment, the aim is to reach the highest possible level of sustainability certification.

Further information about the development of this project can be found at www.c82berlin.de

Savills acted as intermediary in the purchase of the property (asset deal) in December 2019 through a structured bidding process and in the current sale. Hansa Partner Rommel & Meyer provided tax advice to QUEST Investment Partners during the transaction; Greenberg Traurig LLP acted as legal adviser in the purchase, Jebens Mensching PartG mbB in the sale. The rental arrangements were handled by BNP Paribas.

About QUEST Investment Partners
Founded in 2016, QUEST Investment Partners is an investment and project development company with offices in Hamburg, Berlin and Frankfurt. QUEST focuses on investments in commercial properties with upside potential in top locations of major German cities and the Benelux countries. The team has extensive experience in the development of high-quality real estate projects. QUEST Funds is in charge of the fund business of the real estate company and makes individual investments in cooperation with institutional investors. The shareholders of QUEST Investment Partners are the managing directors Theja Geyer and Jan Rouven Künzel as well as the investment holding company of the Hamburg entrepreneur Erck Rickmers.
www.quest-investment.com

Frankfurt/Hamburg, 06 May 2020. The real estate investment manager QUEST Funds welcomes a new team member: on 1 May 2020, David Constantin Hieronymi (29) joined the company’s Frankfurt office as Transaction Manager. He most recently worked at the real estate consultancy Colliers International, holding a position as Senior Analyst within the Central Investment Team, which operates across Germany.
Having completed two master’s degrees with distinction at the International Real Estate Business School (IREBS) in Regensburg and at the University of Westminster in London, Hieronymi went on to support the Central Investment Team at Colliers. In addition to developing new business from the very beginning, he advised on portfolio and large-cap transactions across asset classes as well as buy-side mandates.

In his new role as Transaction Manager at QUEST Funds, he will be coordinating the buy and sell processes for institutional investments from acquisition to closing.

About QUEST Investment Partners
Founded in 2016, QUEST Investment Partners is an investment and project development company with offices in Hamburg, Berlin and Frankfurt. QUEST focuses on investments in commercial properties with upside potential in top locations of major German cities and the Benelux countries. The team has extensive experience in the development of high-quality real estate projects. QUEST Funds is in charge of the fund business of the real estate company and makes individual investments in cooperation with institutional investors. The shareholders of QUEST Investment Partners are the managing directors Theja Geyer and Jan Rouven Künzel as well as the investment holding company of the Hamburg entrepreneur Erck Rickmers. www.quest-investment.com

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Hamburg, 12 March 2020. After Hamburg, Berlin and Frankfurt, the project developers at QUEST Investment Partners have now also expanded into the Bavarian capital. Working with CSMM architects, they are revitalising an office and commercial building from 1973 situated at Schillerstraße 23a in Munich’s up-and-coming Ludwigsvorstadt district. The Fritz property is to undergo complete refurbishment, with only the shell of the building remaining. Two new full floors will be added – the building permit has already been obtained -, as well as a roof terrace with a view over the city. Balconies, bay windows and a glass extension with terrace areas will fill the future courtyard with new life and light. The new façade with its large window fronts will allow for light-flooded rooms and lend the building at the street corner a distinctive appearance. Spread across eight floors, some 4,500 m2 of office space will provide state-of-the-art technology and rooms three metres high for flexible use.
The revitalisation of the Fritz building – named after the street’s namesake Friedrich Schiller – will begin in mid-2020, letting activities start these days. An added benefit for tenants and guests: there are 18 underground parking and outdoor parking spaces.

“We are delighted with our first property in Munich and remain convinced that the area around Schillerstraße will develop very positively,” says Jan Rouven Künzel, Managing Partner at QUEST Investment Partners. The pedestrian zone in this bustling and international neighbourhood with its numerous hotels, residential buildings, retailers and grocery stores is to be extended to connect the central station with Stachus and Marienplatz. The southern part of Schillerstraße, which already features microflats and apartment blocks, will be significantly upgraded by the planned campus for Earth and Environmental Sciences of Ludwig Maximilian University.

QUEST Investment Partners acquired the multi tenant property in early 2019. In the transaction, Deutsche Pfandbriefbank AG acted as financing bank, Cushman & Wakefield LLP as intermediary broker, Hansa Partner Rommel & Meyer as tax adviser and Greenberg Traurig Germany, LLP as legal adviser.

About QUEST Investment Partners
Founded in 2016, QUEST Investment Partners is an investment and project development company with offices in Hamburg, Berlin and Frankfurt. QUEST focuses on investments in commercial properties with upside potential in top locations of major German cities and the Benelux countries. The team has extensive experience in the development of high-quality real estate projects. QUEST Funds is in charge of the fund business of the real estate company and makes individual investments in cooperation with institutional investors. The shareholders of QUEST Investment Partners are the managing directors Theja Geyer and Jan Rouven Künzel as well as the investment holding company of the Hamburg entrepreneur Erck Rickmers.

www.quest-investment.com

FRITZ will be a distinctive, light-flooded building in Munich’s up-and-coming Ludwigsvorstadt district.
Visualisation of the property: beyond visual arts

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• Portfolio includes 15 funds with properties in Germany and the Benelux countries
• Strengthening of management expertise in the existing business
• Assets under management rise to 2.5 billion euros for QUEST Investment Partners

Frankfurt/Hamburg, 05 March 2020. As of April 1, 2020, the investment manager QUEST Funds is taking over the real estate fund portfolio managed by the North German investment company NORDCAPITAL. The portfolio includes 15 funds with office properties in Germany and the Benelux countries, comprising some 265,000 m2 of space and an investment volume of 1.2 billion euros. All asset managers in charge of the real estate funds will transfer to QUEST Funds. “We are pleased that the employees joining us will bring on board proven expertise in portfolio and active asset management. At QUEST Funds we are bringing together the whole real estate fund expertise of the Erck Rickmers Group in order to grow the institutional business under one roof and with a wealth of know-how,” explains Roland Holschuh, Managing Partner at QUEST Funds.

From project developer of premium office properties to asset manager
With the establishment of QUEST Funds and the upcoming takeover of the real estate fund portfolio, QUEST Investment Partners is developing in dynamic ways: from a pure developer to a real estate group with its own asset and fund management, implementing individual investment strategies with institutional investors. Examples for this are the joint ventures for the acquisition of the Hamburg Überseehaus, the Focus Teleport property in Berlin and the project development at Baseler Straße 46-48 in Frankfurt.

Since its foundation in 2016, QUEST Investment Partners has invested over 1.4 billion euros in 28 properties with an area of almost 217,000 m². Following the takeover of the real estate fund portfolio, total assets under management will amount to 2.5 billion euros.

About QUEST Investment Partners
Founded in 2016, QUEST Investment Partners is an investment and project development company with offices in Hamburg, Berlin and Frankfurt. QUEST focuses on investments in commercial properties with upside potential in top locations of major German cities and the Benelux countries. The team has extensive experience in the development of high-quality real estate projects. QUEST Funds is in charge of the fund business of the real estate company and makes individual investments in cooperation with institutional investors. The shareholders of QUEST Investment Partners are the managing directors Theja Geyer and Jan Rouven Künzel as well as the investment holding company of the Hamburg entrepreneur Erck Rickmers.

www.quest-investment.com

Westgate II, a fund property, is an Amsterdam office building with over 26,000 m² of office space; The sole tenant is PricewaterhouseCoopers. The lease runs until at least 2029.

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Hamburg, 18 February 2020. In addition to their existing offices in Hamburg and Berlin, real estate project developers QUEST Investment Partners have now opened a branch in Frankfurt am Main. Martin Schwientek (43) and Simon Speidel (45) are in charge of the new office in the German metropolis. Both were previously with the real estate service firm Jones Lang LaSalle SE (JLL), where they worked on a range of major projects together. They have excellent connections and broad knowledge of the real estate market in the Rhine-Main area. The first projects Schwientek and Speidel will oversee are the development project on Baseler Straße 46-48 / Gutleutstraße 80-82, with roughly 25,000 m2, and the revitalisation of the Hotel Hohenzollern building at Düsseldorfer Straße 1–7, where the new QUEST office is based. Both properties are located in the up-and-coming area around Frankfurt’s central station.

“Thanks to the stable demand for centrally located office spaces, we believe that attractive locations in Frankfurt’s city centre will continue to harbour great potential going forward. We aim to expand our portfolio there,” explains Theja Geyer, Managing Partner at QUEST Investment Partners.

Martin Schwientek and Simon Speidel to set up the new Frankfurt am Main branch

Martin Schwientek is an architect, graduate engineer and qualified real estate economist. He was at JLL in Frankfurt for the past six years, most recently as Director Project & Development Services, after working for various architectural offices in the beginning of his career and as an external consultant for development projects for four years.
Graduate civil engineer Simon Speidel, like Schwientek, previously worked for JLL in Frankfurt for nine years, where he most recently held the position of Director Project & Development Services. Prior to that, he lived and worked in Dubai and Abu Dhabi for eight years, where he was a Senior Project Manager for Tilke & Partners LLC for four years, overseeing a range of development projects and setting up the Doha/Qatar office.

Since its foundation in 2016, QUEST Investment Partners has invested over 1.4 billion euros in 28 properties with a total surface area of almost 217,000 m2.

About QUEST Investment Partners

QUEST Investment Partners is a real estate project development and investment company with offices in Hamburg, Berlin and Frankfurt. QUEST focuses on investments in commercial and residential properties with upside potential in top locations of major German cities The QUEST team has extensive experience in the development of high-quality real estate projects and continuously aims at increasing the real estate values of its shareholders and investors. QUEST’s shareholders are the managing directors Theja Geyer and Jan Rouven Künzel as well as the investment holding company of the Hamburg entrepreneur Erck Rickmers who is invested in real estate, equity investments and shipping.

www.quest-investment.com

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– QUEST Funds targets institutional investors
– Focus on commercial properties in major German cities
– Roland Holschuh assumes leadership as Managing Partner

Hamburg, 29 January 2020. Real estate company Quest Investment Partners has founded a company for investment business with institutional investors: the new QUEST Funds GmbH is headquartered in Frankfurt and Hamburg. Managing Partner is Roland Holschuh FRICS (45) who will be responsible for the expansion of real estate investments and for the day-to-day management.

QUEST Funds is an investment manager that focuses on core plus and value-add commercial properties with specific emphasis on Germany. The investment partners of the new company will include institutional investors such as insurance providers, pension funds, foundations and family offices. Together with QUEST Funds, they can make tailored real estate investments as funds, club deals or individual investments. The investments focus on office properties with potential for value creation in central locations in Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich.

As board member of Commerz Real AG and Managing Director of Commerz Real Investment KVG, Roland Holschuh was last responsible for asset management of all real estate investment vehicles of the Commerz Real Group with a volume of approximately 14 billion euros. Prior to joining Commerz Real, he restructured the combined real estate portfolio of Commerzbank and Dresdner Bank during their integration in his role as Global Head of Corporate Real Estate Management.

For more information please visit www.quest-funds.com

About QUEST Investment Partners

QUEST Investment Partners works in the fields of real estate project development and investment, with offices in Hamburg, Berlin and Frankfurt. QUEST focuses on investments in commercial and residential properties with upside potential in top locations of major German cities. The QUEST team has extensive experience in the development of high-quality real estate projects and continuously aims at increasing the real estate values of its shareholders and investors. QUEST’s shareholders are the managing directors Theja Geyer and Jan Rouven Künzel as well as the investment holding company of the Hamburg entrepreneur Erck Rickmers who is invested in real estate, equity investments and shipping.

www.quest-investment.com

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Hamburg / Berlin, 31 July 2019 – Warburg-HIH Invest Real Estate (Warburg-HIH Invest) just acquired the “ELEMENT B” office scheme in Berlin-Mitte for an institutional real estate fund it manages. Raised in 1992, the building offers a total of 6,126 square metres in lettable area plus 69 underground parking spots. At the moment, the property is undergoing a comprehensive upgrade by seller QUEST Investment Partners. It was agreed not to disclose the selling price.

• Attractive downtown location
• 6,126 square metres of lettable area
• Well-diversified tenant mix

The property at Brunnenstrasse 128 is characterised by a well-diversified tenant structure with a comparatively long average remaining lease term of 8.2 years. Anchor tenant is the company Liefery, which is part of the Hermes Logistics Group. Other large units are occupied by the housing company degewo, which is owned by the State of Berlin, by the human rights organisation Terre des Femmes and by the Deutsche Welle broadcasting system. The tenant community also includes Lovoo GmbH, Number Four AG and a branch office of tecis Finanzdienstleistungen AG.

Due to its location directly on Brunnenstrasse, the “ELEMENT B” scheme has superb access to Berlin’s road and rail networks. The nearest underground stop lies within very easy walking distance. Important transport hubs with the option to change trains, including Alexanderplatz, the Berlin-Gesundbrunnen railway station and Berlin’s central railway station, are a short ride away via underground or tram while several bus stops are also located in the vicinity.

In conjunction with the modernisation and revitalisation measures undertaken by the seller, the façade was given an entirely new design, and was fully replaced on the ground floor. The alterations created a completely new entrance area, a new roof terrace and a glass pavilion with additional rental units in the inner courtyard. Moreover, the completed refurbishment permits multiple lettings of the floors and thus a much more flexible use of the building.

“The ‘ELEMENT B’ scheme combines the qualities of a revitalised modern office building with an excellent location in downtown Berlin. The building therefore meets the requirements profile of young creative media outfits from the IT sector or the new media industry above all while simultaneously appealing to classic office tenants such as established companies or organisations,” elaborated Hans-Joachim Lehmann, Managing Director of Warburg-HIH Invest. “Located in the vicinity are trendy neighbourhoods in Prenzlauer Berg, along Kastanienallee and around Hackescher Markt, making it safe to expect sustained tenant demand.”

“With the structural alterations undertaken while ensuring uninterrupted occupancy throughout, we managed to implement a high design quality and to create loft-like modern floor plan structures. Moreover, the tenant mix and the cooperation with the incumbent tenants before and during the construction phase reflect a successful asset management strategy,” Arne Siemens, Head of Branch Berlin of QUEST Investment Partners, was pleased to say.

About Warburg-HIH Invest
Warburg-HIH Invest Real Estate (Warburg-HIH Invest) is an independent pan-European investment manager for real estate with currently 8.8 billion euros worth of assets under management. Over the past 15 years, the company has positioned itself as specialist for pan-European real estate investments. Around 150 institutional clients have entrusted their capital to Warburg-HIH Invest – for the acquisition of real estate and its addition to the requested fund solution.
More information can be found on the company’s website at: www.warburg-hih.com/en

About QUEST Investment Partners

QUEST Investment Partners is a real estate project development and investment company with offices in Hamburg and Berlin. QUEST focuses on investments in commercial and residential properties with upside potential in top locations of major German cities. In retail developments the focus is on good inner-city locations in German metropolitan regions. The QUEST team has extensive experience in the development of high-quality real estate projects and continuously aims at increasing the real estate values of its shareholders and investors. QUEST’s shareholders are the managing directors Theja Geyer and Jan Rouven Künzel as well as the investment holding company of the Hamburg entrepreneur Erck Rickmers who is invested in real estate, equity investments and shipping.
www.quest-investment.com

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• Acquisition of two old buildings in Berlin-Charlottenburg with 59 units
• Residential spaces from 64 to 286 m².

Hamburg, Berlin, 22 November 2018. The project development company QUEST Investment Partners is expanding its portfolio: in Berlin-Charlottenburg, the company made its first acquisition of two residential properties from the turn of the century, spanning some 7,900 m². Both of these buildings have been or will be refurbished to a high standard and cater to a wide range of requirements thanks to different apartment sizes. “We are delighted to have acquired these two residential properties, which allow us to tap into a further use class and offer an impressive building quality,” says Theja Geyer, Managing Partner at QUEST Investment Partners.

Mommsen & Wieland – Modern luxuries close to Kurfürstendamm
The interconnected building at Mommsenstraße 60 / Wielandstraße 15 in Berlin-Charlottenburg dates back to 1905 and features 24 units ranging from 64 to 286 m² across six floors. Over the past two years, this vacant old building with 4,480 m² of usable floor space was fully renovated to a high standard, with an additional loft conversion and the installation of new lifts. The property bearing the name Mommsen & Wieland embodies the latest luxuries: premium oak parquet flooring, high ornamented stucco ceilings, generous double wing doors and light-flooded rooms make for an elegant atmosphere. An architectural highlight is the refurbished historical lift car from the Gründerzeit era in the building section on Wielandstraße. The apartments will soon be sold on an individual basis.

Where old meets new – Leibnizstraße 43 / Niebuhrstraße 69
Similar to Mommsen & Wieland, the 35 apartments on Leibnizstraße will be completely refurbished and then sold individually. The development of the property, which dates back to 1900, is scheduled to begin next year. The apartments range from 85 to 230 m², on a total usable floor space of 3,500 m². Added to this are 170 m² of commercial space on the ground floor. Here, too, a charming blend of old and modern elements promises comfortable living in a popular residential area with many cafés, restaurants and boutiques. The maisonette apartments that are being developed feature exclusive roof terraces and exemplify the architectural dialogue between modernity and tradition.

About QUEST Investment Partners
Founded in 2016, QUEST Investment Partners is an investment and project development company with offices in Hamburg, Berlin and Frankfurt. QUEST focuses on investments in commercial properties with upside potential in top locations of major German cities and the Benelux countries. The team has extensive experience in the development of high-quality real estate projects. QUEST Funds is in charge of the fund business of the real estate company and makes individual investments in cooperation with institutional investors. The shareholders of QUEST Investment Partners are the managing directors Theja Geyer and Jan Rouven Künzel as well as the investment holding company of the Hamburg entrepreneur Erck Rickmers. www.quest-investment.com

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