• 75 million euros investment
• more than 540 additional jobs
  

Hamburg/Sulzbach, November 16, 2011 – Premiere in Sulzbach near Frankfurt: tomorrow, on Thursday November 17, 2011, the extension of the Main-Taunus-Zentrum will open its doors at 8 a.m. The shopping center thus grows by around 12,000 m² to a total of approx. 91,000 m² sales area. With approx. 70 new shops, in future, a total of 170 specialist stores, cafés, restaurants and service outlets will be represented in the shopping center. Overall, the visitors are provided around 4,500 parking spaces, approx. 500 more than before the extension. 540 new jobs have been created so that around 2,800 people will be working in the Main-Taunus-Zentrum as of tomorrow. The modernization and extension works comprise an investment volume of around 75 million euros and have been realized by the project partners DWS, Deutsche EuroShop and ECE. The long-term management of the Main-Taunus-Zentrum will also in future be realized by ECE.

Claus-Matthias Böge, spokesman of the Management Board of Deutsche EuroShop: “The Main-Taunus-Zentrum has been one of the most popular meeting points for shopping in the region for more than 45 years. With the new range on offer, it will surely become even more attractive in the future. We are very pleased about this as long-term investor.”

Hermann Wüstefeld, Head of Production and Management for closed funds at DWS: “DWS ACCESS established the closed fund DB Immobilienfonds 12 Main-Taunus-Zentrum more than ten years ago as we were convinced of the shopping center’s success. We are pursuing a long-term strategy and are jointly implementing it consequently together with ECE and Deutsche EuroShop. The modernization is a milestone in the long-term development of the center.”

ECE CEO Alexander Otto: “With the extension of the Main-Taunus-Zentrum, we made the meeting point for leisure, culture and trade fit for the future and brought it up to date. For decades, the MTZ has been an established shopping institution far beyond the Main-Taunus region. I am pleased that we are able to secure this success with the extension measures and I am convinced that this center will remain so popular in the future.”

With the extension and modernization measures, the center adapted to today’s requirements for a high-quality retail property. To make the tenant mixture even more complex and more attractive, the center needed more shop space. For this purpose, the northern car park between highway B8, the existing car park and the center was built on. On the ground floor was a mall constructed that is connected to the already existing mall. The two floors on top are used as parking levels. The MTZ provides in future around 4,500 parking spaces together with the new four-storey car park on the south. The new building will be supplied with green power and district heating just as the existing center.

In May 1964, the Main-Taunus-Zentrum was opened as one of the first shopping centers in Germany and is with a potential catchment area spanning approx. 2.2 million people and an average of approx. 39,000 visitors per day one of the most heavily frequented retail locations in Germany. The MTZ is a prime example of how a retail property can be managed successfully for decades with the help of continuous modernizations and market adjustments. The traditional center has been managed by ECE since 1998.

Only recently, the Main-Taunus-Zentrum ranked in a survey among one of the 20 best shopping centers in Germany. In the current “Shopping Center Performance Report 2011”, a survey carried out by ecostra and CB Richard Ellis in cooperation with the Immobilien Zeitung magazine, tenants in 200 German shopping centers were interviewed how satisfied they are with their turnover.

Anchor tenants in the MTZ are Galeria Kaufhof, Breuninger, Media Markt, Karstadt, P&C, C&A, Appelrath Cüpper, Zara, Anson’s, and Rewe. In the course of the extension, H&M and New Yorker expanded their shop spaces. New are an Apple store, Thalia, the fashion labels Hollister, Bench, G-Star, and Kookai as well as the winery Höchst, a regional wine and delicatessen retailer.