(Bloomberg) -- Becken Development is in exclusive talks to buy Signa’s Elbtower development, the unfinished Hamburg skyscraper that became emblematic of the collapse of Rene Benko’s real estate empire.
The details of the purchase agreement are still to be negotiated with Becken’s consortium, according to an emailed statement from the project’s insolvency administrator on Friday The consortium plans to complete the 245-meter Elbtower and to establish a natural history museum on the site, according to the statement.
Like many other of Signa’s major projects, Elbtower fell into insolvency at the beginning of this year and has since been under the aegis of administrator Torsten Martini at law firm Görg. Elbtower has been considered a particularly difficult project, given the vast amount of investment needed to complete it.
Administrators have been working to unwind Signa’s expansive portfolio of luxury real estate since its collapse last year, with any leftover proceeds upstreamed to the major insolvent Signa units based in Austria. They’ve found buyers for some prized assets, including London’s Selfridges department store, Berlin’s KaDeWe and the Lamarr development in Vienna.
Signa Prime Selection, the flagship property unit that indirectly owns the Elbtower, only expects to recover around €600 million from property sales. That figure also doesn’t account for other so-called midco loans which also need to be serviced.
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