Frankfurt Airport's integrated office and rail centre - The Squaire - is "a complete city under one roof" which even has its own zip code, Christoph Nebl, its managing director told delegates at Smart Airports in Munich today (October 11).
Explaining how aviation can be an important catalyst for the business location decision, Nebl said it was the connection with people that make lives worth living, and how this is exactly the concept offered by the 150,000sqm complex at Frankfurt Airport, which is a key part of the gateway's airport city offering.
The 660-metre-long real estate complex on top of the high-speed train station at the gateway, is a "complete city under one roof" Nebl said, which allows business to better connect and get closer to their clients.
New Work City, as it has also been named, has room for 7,000 people to work or live on the premises.
Currently the complex houses two Hilton hotels, a large KPMG office with 2,500 staff and, most recently, Lufthansa has rented 18,500sqm, which will see 1,000 additional workers based there.
This brings the occupancy rate of The Squaire to around 82%, Nebl said.
According to Nebl, the complex features a wide variety of offices, hotels, restaurants, retail and service areas, as well as gyms, kindergartens, and medical facilities, allowing it to offer its occupiers all the services they need under one roof.
Nebl said that locating to an airport has many benefits for businesses. As an international meeting place, he said it allowed companies to hold face to face meetings at the airport itself without the need for taxi journeys and fares, allowing businesses to "get closer to their customers as well as save time and mobility."
The Squaire is easily accessible from every direction and offers the "right atmosphere for personal communication. It is the perfect place to be and be seen."
"It will end up that customers come to the company purely because they are based at an airport. Therefore airport also can boost business," Nebl said:
Meanwhile, in a binding agreement with the current syndicate of banks that are bankrolling the project, , the existing financing for the project has been extended by more than two years until the end of 2013.
IVG, which owns and operates the project, intends to put the property on the market in 2013, by which time the building is expected to be fully occupied.
The financing volume and the loan-to-value ratio remain unchanged at €500 million and around 62%, respectively.
In a parallel deal, IVG has also signed a loan agreement for €35 million for funding the multi-storey car park at The Squaire parking with a German Landesbank. This financing, too, will reach its planned maturity at the end of 2013.
