FOUR Frankfurt: First anchor tenant signs long-term lease agreement

• Baker McKenzie will lease eight floors from 2022
• Major law firm decides on long-term location even before demolition
• 40 percent of the western office tower already let

Groß & Partner has successfully started marketing the four planned high-rise buildings on the former Deutsche Bank site. Six months before the start of demolition, Baker McKenzie, one of the largest law firms in the world, has already opted for FOUR as its new location. From 2022, Baker McKenzie will be leasing the top eight floors of the smaller office tower and will occupy around 8,000 square metres in total. This means the project developer has found a long-term anchor tenant for the 100 m high office tower on Junghofstrasse well before completion: the law firm will be occupying around 40 percent of the tower’s floor space. In addition to individual offices with top quality fittings, the space will also accommodate state-of-the-art meeting rooms and a staff bistro. Staff at the FOUR complex can look forward to panoramic views of the city and the Taunus mountains, many different restaurant and catering offerings and shops. The CBRE Group served as consultant and broker.

FOUR prevails against strong competition

Groß & Partner welcomes the early conclusion of the lease agreement with this major international law firm: “We are still in the early stages of project development. The fact that we already managed to find an anchor tenant for one of the two office towers so early in the project is an endorsement of the location and the high standards we aim to meet with FOUR”, explains managing director Nikolaus Bieber. Groß & Partner was competing against a number of other properties which will be available much earlier. The fact that Baker McKenzie nevertheless opted for this location in the heart of the skyline speaks in favour of the project. “We chose FOUR because the property is a perfect fit for our strategic goals. The new long-term lease gives the law firm a location in the centre of Frankfurt am Main. We will create a future-oriented working environment which focuses, not just on open and flexible interior design but also on short communication paths and project-oriented teamwork”, says Axel Metzger, Managing Director at Baker McKenzie.

FOUR as an example of vertical urban development

The FOUR high-rise complex in the middle of Frankfurt’s city centre, designed by UNStudio, represents a utilisation concept for Germany that is new and unique in scale. The “heart of the skyline” is one of Europe’s largest inner city construction projects. On approx. 219,000 square metres of floor space; a vibrant, innovative and sustainable quarter will be created with living space for up to 1,000 people and around 4,000 new jobs. The complex will be a new public space in a part of the city centre that had been closed off to the public for more than 45 years. Approximately half of the space will be used for offices, and the remaining space will accommodate around 650 apartments as well as hotels, food outlets and restaurants, retail shops, corner shops and public leisure space. Construction will start at the beginning of 2018, with completion of the rental space scheduled for 2022.