With the opening of Westfield Hamburg-Überseequartier, the city of Hamburg will welcome a vibrant new destination in the heart of HafenCity – a place that dynamically combines residential, office space and leisure attractions. But the date for the Grand Opening has now been postponed once more: the opening ceremony will take place on October 17, 2024.
Jakub Skwarlo, Chief Operating Officer Central Europe at Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, says: “With the opening of Westfield Hamburg-Überseequartier, we are creating a new part of the city and bringing the heart of HafenCity to life. This is a unique urban regeneration project, transforming a former industrial site into a vibrant hub, especially for the local community. Together with our partners from the retail, dining, entertainment, office, hotel and residential property sectors, we have tremendous momentum leading us into the Grand Opening event. The attractiveness and uniqueness of the project is undeniable and we’d like to express our sincere thanks to all our partners and those involved as we eagerly anticipate this next milestone.”
An exceptional mix of shopping, dining and entertainment
The Grand Opening on October 17 will focus on retail, dining, entertainment and culture, with the residential, office and hotel buildings to be opened in phases as planned. The letting rate for retail, dining and entertainment is currently 93%, with only a few units still available.
The total retail, dining and entertainment area, as well as a cluster for medical services and doctors’ offices, totals around 170 concepts. Long-term anchor tenants already include Breuninger, Inditex (with five stores including one of the largest Zara flagship stores in Germany), H&M, Mango, Thalia, Intersport Knudsen, Rewe Piclum, as well as Port des Lumières, Lego Discovery Centre and Kinopolis. This blend of extraordinary entertainment and cultural attractions, many of which are making their debut in the city, firmly establishes Westfield Hamburg-Überseequartier as a unique destination in northern Germany.
URW’s leasing strategy has created a mix of famous global names, national players, individual concepts and local champions, with a focus on offering visitors brands and attractions that are new to the city or to northern Germany. For around two thirds of the area already let, tenants who are not yet represented in Hamburg’s inner city have been brought on board. Examples include Stradivarius, Oysho, PME Legend, Karl Lagerfeld, JD Sports, Liebeskind, Hobbs, Phase Eight, Luis Trenker and DJI Hasselblad.
Mixed-use urban regeneration
The new destination also offers 579 residential apartments, offices for 4,000 workers (key tenants include Shell Deutschland, Mazars and ADLER Smart Solutions), three Accor hotels with a combined 810 rooms (under the Pullman, Novotel and ibis Styles brands) and a cruise terminal.
Surrounded by water on two sides, with a direct view of the river Elbe and a unique waterfront promenade, Westfield Hamburg-Überseequartier establishes a new form of living, working and recreation directly on the water. The quarter is optimally integrated into local infrastructure with its own metro station, bus lines and plentiful mobility services. The project was conceived and realised with a clear focus on sustainability, both during construction and in its upcoming operations. Among many features, construction at the site included the remediation of almost 1 million tonnes of polluted soil, 90% of the cement used was low carbon, which saved 23,800 tonnes of CO2, and it is estimated that the project avoids the artificialisation of around 8,000 m² of natural and agricultural land.
