At the heart of Fraport's airport city vision is the desire to be a global junction based on mobility and to be geared to the needs of businesses operating in a globalised economy.
Major real estate developments in and around the airport are now taking shape: the Mönchhof logistics park along the Main River and adjacent to the site of the planned fourth runway, 'The Squaire' Frankfurt, an office/hotel complex nearly completion on the rooftop of FRA's long-distance, the now operational high-speed train station and Gateway Gardens - the brand new 'downtown' or urban core of Frankfurt Airport City are all under construction.
A brief look at Fraport's 2009 fiscal year reveals just how important non-aeronautical activities are becoming for Fraport and at Frankfurt Airport City.
In terms of revenue, aviation and ground handling generated roughly two thirds of the €1.97 billion total, while retail and real estate generated 18.4% and external business operations the remaining 15.4%.
However, the relationship changes for EBITDA (earnings before interest, depreciation, tax and depreciation) with retail and real estate growing to 50.6% and external activities 25.6% - together more than three quarters of the total €552.9 million.
In contrast, the aviation (21.0%) and grounding handling (2.8%) segments together comprised less than one quarter. Fraport and D&S Geo Innogy (a joint venture of RWE Innogy and Daldrup & Söhne AG) launched a joint venture in late 2009 to explore the development potential of the Walldorf deep-earth geothermal field near the southern side of the airport site.
If this is successful, the partners will construct a hybrid power plant, which for the first time will make combined use of geothermal power and biogas sent by pipeline from Sachsen- Anhalt (eastern Germany) to produce electricity and heat. This will help the gateway meet its target of reducing CO2 emissions. In September 2009 FRA was the first airport in Europe to be certified under ACI Europe's Airport Carbon Accreditation scheme.
Retail space
As one of Europe's primary hubs, Frankfurt Airport is frequented by international clientele who tend to have above-average spending power. This fact alone makes it a profitable location for retailers and passengers alike, while other visitors at FRA want to have a greater range of shopping and other services at the airport.
Retail at FRA comprises the following business areas: retail shops, duty free sales/Travel Value, gastronomy, services (banks, money exchanges, and telecommunications), airport advertising, and car rental agencies.
Visitors currently have a choice of 250 shops, bars and restaurants and service outlets in the air terminals, but this is set to expand substantially over the coming years.
The total area currently dedicated to retail activities in both terminals at FRA amounts to 26,000sqm. Approximately 18,000sqm of space is dedicated to shopping, with the remaining 8,000 available for gastronomy and services.
The amount of shopping space will grow from 18,000sqm to more than 30,000sqm by 2012.
Major projects include adding approximately 2,000sqm at Terminal 2, completing the Airport City Mall Frankfurt and building a large 9,000sqm shopping mall at Pier A-Plus. By 2020, FRA will see a doubling of shopping areas to more than 40,000sqm.
To be inaugurated in 2012, the brand new Pier A-Plus pier will extend Terminal 1 by about 800m toward the west and comprise a total space of over 185,400sqm.
The construction project encompasses the new pier and a structure called the 'A Root', where Pier A-Plus joins the main Terminal 1 structure at the existing Pier A.
This is where an impressive new 9,000sqm shopping centre will be added to serve the passengers of both Pier A and Pier A-Plus. Approximately 5,000sqm of new duty free/ Travel Value sales space will be created for duty free giant Gebrüder Heinemann in this area and plans call for a new walkthrough shop to optimise airside dwell time.
Partially completed, the Airport City Mall Frankfurt has been created by totally redesigning Level 0 of Terminal 1. The extensive choice of retail and gastronomy services in this 6,000sqm area extending from Hall A to Hall C is accessible via the distributor level to the parking garage and via the regional train station one level below.
Trendy new concepts in the medium price range make up the new mixture of businesses. Lighted gates are the core of the design concept, which helps to split up the area and provide an optical focus on the individual marketplaces.
A highlight is the opening (August 2010 of the world's first airport franchise) for the famous Hooters America Restaurant and Sportsbar at Terminal 1.
Cargo and Logistics
About 27 hectares of land is being added to CargoCity South at FRA and CargoCity North will be reconfigured in the coming years.
Currently the new Mönchhof logistics park is attracting a lot of attention from potential clients. In early 2010, Rewe (a giant German supermarket/ retail group) acquired a 120,000sqm site from Fraport to construct a cold storage food warehouse at Fraport's Mönchhof area.
"With the conclusion of the Rewe contract, some 35% of Mönchhof has now been marketed. This underscores the unabated interest in Mönchhof as a top logistics location in the immediate vicinity of Frankfurt Airport as well as FRA's importance as a hub for foodstuffs and perishable produce," says Schulte.
Rewe will initially build a 28,000sqm storage hall which can be expanded to 41,600sqm. The first phase is scheduled to be completed by mid-2011.
Undoubtedly, Rewe can also benefit from FRA's role as a leading aviation gateway for perishables. Serviced sites at the 110-hectare Mönchhof area are marketed by Fraport Immobilienservice und-entwicklungs & CO.KG (Fraport Immo), a wholly-owned Fraport subsidiary.
"The success in marketing Mönchhöf confirms our concept of mixed-use logistics, office and retail operations near Frankfurt Airport," says Schulte. Already, more than 700 jobs have been created here at companies depending on the FRA mobility hub.
These include the state-of-theart express centre for DHL, the branch office of airport retailer Gebrüder Heinemann, and facilities for Expeditors International as well as for Internet trader Dress for Less.
Once these projects are completed, Mönchhof is expected to employ a total of 6,500 people. Offering a central strategic location in Europe, Mönchhof features perfect transportation links because of its proximity to Frankfurt Airport and direct access to the A3 and A67 autobahns as well as the B43 federal highway.
