Billionaire Klaus-Michael Kühne rejects support for the Elbtower project

Billionaire Klaus-Michael Kühne rejects support for the Elbtower project

According to a report by Tagesschau.de, billionaire Klaus-Michael Kühne is distancing himself from politicians' hopes for his support in the further construction of the Elbtower in Hamburg. Kühne rejects state aid for the project and emphasizes that he has no involvement with the Elbtower. In addition, the pressure is growing on investor René Benko, who is obviously having financing problems. The Elbtower construction site was interrupted last week due to a lack of payments.

With a height of 245 meters and 64 floors, the Elbtower will be the tallest conventional building in Hamburg and the third tallest in Germany. The construction costs amount to 25 million euros per month, so the entire project will cost almost a billion euros. But the work has currently largely come to a standstill.

Hamburg's First Mayor Peter Tschentscher is ruling out state financial aid for the Elbtower because the contracts with the developer Signa are well negotiated and abandoning the project would mean great economic damage for private investors.

Investors are withdrawing their trust in René Benko. However, a spokesman for Commerzbank asset manager Commerz Real, which has a 25 percent stake in the project, continues to express its support for the Elbtower and assumes that construction work can be resumed soon. The most important shareholders of the Signa real estate group have called for René Benko's removal from power in a letter and suggested restructuring expert Arndt Geiwitz as the new company boss.

The construction freeze and the financing problems are having a massive impact on the real estate market and the construction industry in Hamburg. Stopping work will result in delays and potentially additional costs to the project. Investors could lose confidence in the Hamburg real estate market and hesitate to finance further projects in the city. In addition, construction companies could lose orders and jobs could be at risk.

The potential impact on the market and the industry is difficult to calculate and depends on how quickly a solution to the financing problems is found and whether construction work can resume. It is expected that the market for building and selling real estate in Hamburg will be affected for the time being.

Source: According to a report from www.tagesschau.de