Art-Invest Real Estate was able to win the globally successful Japanese fashion brand UNIQLO for a store atAlter Wall in the city centre of Hamburg. The conversion in the historic front building Alter Wall 2 has already begun, and the opening is scheduled for autumn 2020. This will also mark the completion of the new construction and conversion of the partly listed ensemble Alter Wall.
The store with 1,750 m2 of retail space on four floors is located directly at the town hall square in Hamburg in a former banking house which has been converted extensively for retail use. Matching the Hanseatic city in style, the fashion retailer’s focus is on classic and functional clothing for women, men and children, with the emphasis on ‘LifeWear’ – high-quality and durable garments, but at fair prices.
Johannes Lichtenthaler, partner at Art-Invest Real Estate and branch manager Hamburg, is proud of this new asset for Hamburg and the retail location Hamburg City: “We are pleased that we could win UNIQLO as a tenant for Alter Wall. The timeless concept of the brand is an exciting contrast to the historical, listed facades of the front building –this will lead to new, fresh impulses for this location and will also inspire UNIQLO’s customers”, says Lichtenthaler.
For UNIQLO, which is a brand of Fast Retailing Co., one of the largest apparel retailers in the world, it is the first store in the north of Germany. The company already operates more than 2,200 stores worldwide, including nine in Germany, as well as an online shop. UNIQLO inspires its customers with specially developed clothing technologies such as HEATTECH, AIRism and Ultra Light Down and collaborations with well-known designers like Alexander Wang.
Taku Morikawa, CEO of UNIQLO Europe on the choice of location: „Hamburgis an impressive city, known around the world for its tolerance, culture and economic significance as a central European trading centre with its port. We are delighted that we found such an extraordinary location for our first store in the heart of this great city. UNIQLO Alter Wall will give us the opportunity to present UNIQLO and our LifeWear concept to customers in and around Hamburg in a wonderful way.”
About the project Alter Wall Hamburg
Alter Wall Hamburg is a historic ensemble of buildings in the city centre that Art-Invest Real Estate is reviving into a central meeting place in the Hanseatic city for strolling, shopping and working, directly next to the town hall and the chamber of commerce. There will be offices overlooking the canal or city hall on a total area of 17,600 m2 and space for 15 shops/restaurants on 10,100 m2. The new Bucerius Kunst Forum, which already opened, takes up 3,100 m2. In addition, a pedestrian boulevard and an underground car park with 220 parking spaces will be created in this most central location. The revitalization and new building behind Hamburg’s longest continuous historical façade will revitalize the centre of Hamburg and link the western to the eastern city centre. As Hamburg’s newest boulevard, Alter Wall will invite for a stroll and serve as the shortest and most attractive connection for pedestrians from Rathausmarkt to the Elbphilharmonie andHafenCity.
Numerous office tenants have already moved in, the Bucerius Kunst Forum and the underground car park have been open since June 2019, and with the successive leasing of the retail space – most recently long- established Hamburg-based company Ladage&Oelke and the US fashion label Anthropologie – the project development of Alter Wall Hamburg is on the home stretch.
