Signal Effect for Airport Region: Marketing of BBI Business Park Berlin a Resounding Success

First third of Business Park sold to a British investor / Berlin’s largest single industrial and commercial park under development at the BBI / Direct link to airport apron areas

First great success in the marketing of space on the BBI site: Berlin Airports has now sold 37.9 hectares of the altogether 109-hectare BBI Business Park Berlin to the British business space operator, SEGRO. The parties have agreed to keep the purchase price confidential. Berlin Airports has also agreed an option with SEGRO for the acquisition of a further 24 hectares of the largest single industrial and commercial park in Berlin.

Dr. Rainer Schwarz, CEO of Berlin Airports, underlines the signal effect of the British investment in the investment, saying, “In the BBI Business Park Berlin, Berlin Airports is developing a highly attractive commercial site that is directly linked to the apron of the Capital City Airport BBI. The investment made here by SEGRO, a highly respected company, shows just how attractive these premises are. We intend to continue establishing the airport as a top investment location in the capital. The Business Park is an ideal site for modern service providers, industrial operations and for international logistics companies.”

Thomas Weyer, BBI/Technical Director of Berlin Airports, stressed that construction work would begin around the middle of 2008 on the BBI Business Park Berlin. The first phase of construction providing infrastructure for the site should be completed by 2009. As Mr Weyer explains, “From mid-2008 onwards, the excavators will be hard at work on the BBI Business Park Berlin site. In SEGRO, we have gained a business park operator with international experiences and an excellent network of contacts as our partner for the joint marketing of these spaces. We are already conducting promising negotiations with other investors today. The area is particularly interesting for companies planning to move to the BBI after Tegel Airport closes, for example. Along with SEGRO, we will be presenting the BBI Business Park to the trade public at the MIPIM trade fair in Cannes in March 2008.”

Harald Wolf, Senator for Economics, Technology and Women’s Affairs, welcomes that Berlin Airports’ intensive efforts have culminated in the sale of a third of the BBI Business Park Berlin to the British development group SEGRO. The Senate for Economy, Technology and Women’s Affairs, which will also provide the Treptow-Köpenick district responsible for the external infrastructural development of the BBI Business Park with so-called GA-Mittel (joint task funds) for infrastructural development, is jointly involved with the Brandenburg Ministry for Economy in the development of the area surrounding the airport.

The growing interest in the area surrounding the airport and the region as a whole is something the business development managers are noticing, too. A site-promotion team including members from the economic development companies Berlin Partner GmbH and ZukunftsAgentur Brandenburg has already commenced its site-marketing activities for the airport environs and canvassing for investments and companies to move to the site. From March 2008, the joint site-promotion team will have an office on site at the airport. Wolf: “I am confident that a large number of companies will decide to move to the area around the Capital City Airport BBI, East Germany’s largest infrastructural development project, and so create many new jobs in the region.”

The Business Park is the largest single industrial and commercial park in Berlin adjacent to the new Capital City Airport BBI. The area, which has a large proportion of green areas, offers tailor-made, fully developed lots grouped together on a single site for companies of all kinds – from start-ups to back-office facilities, from regional distribution centres to global production companies.