HafenCity Project

HafenCity - facts and figures

The most important facts and figures about what is currently Europe’s biggest inner-city development project, its varied quarters and land use concepts

Essential facts and figures about Europe’s biggest inner-city development project now, its varied neighborhoods and land use concepts
Status: March 2012

 Overview

1. Essential facts  & figures
2. Development Management and HafenCity Hamburg GmbH
3. Development of HafenCity
4. Land use - current status
5. Sustainable HafenCity
6. Quarters

 

1. ESSENTIAL FACTS & FIGURES

HafenCity covers an area of 157 hectares, making it one of the most prominent inner-city waterfront development projects in the world. Based on a new concept for urban living, it will increase the size of Hamburg City by 40 percent (Hamburg has a population of approx. 1.78 million, the Hamburg Metropolitan Region 4.3 million). Between the historic Speicherstadt warehouse district and the River Elbe a new city with a cosmopolitan mix of homes, service businesses, culture, leisure, tourism and commerce is emerging. Structures typical of a port will be retained. The development is being managed by HafenCity Hamburg GmbH, a 100-per cent subsidiary of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. The time-frame for development of the entire area extends to circa 2025. HafenCity is already rated as the model project for international waterfront and “new downtown” development.

Key data

• Total area: 157 hectares (ha)
• Land area: 126 ha
• Expansion of Hamburg City by 40 %
• Gross floor area (GFA): new building circa 2.32 million m²
• 6,000 homes and more than 45,000 jobs will be created
• 10.5 km of new waterfront with promenades and squares
• Around 26 ha public parks, squares and promenades
• Currently 49 projects are completed; another 35 under construction or planned
• Over 1 million m² GFA already confirmed through sales of land or exclusive options with planning obligations
• Previous to sale approx. 99 % of sites suitable for construction are publicly owned (“Stadt und Hafen” special fund under public law represented by HafenCity Hamburg GmbH)
• Investment volume: private investment approx. € 8 billion; public investment: circa € 2.4 billion, primarily financed out of sales of land in HafenCity (circa € 1.5 billion)
• General basis for planning:
  ◦Masterplan 2000
  ◦Masterplan revision eastern HafenCity 2010

 2. DEVELOPEMENT MANAGEMENT AND HAFENCITY HAMBURG GMBH

Major urban development projects call for strong interaction and coalescence between conception and realization. In particular, because of the high level of development and the considerable intricacy involved in closely coordinating public investment (circa EUR 2,4 billion) with acquisition of private investment (around EUR 8 billion) the resulting responsibilities are very complex and demand strong management.

In 1997 a port and location development company (GHS) was set up to manage the development of HafenCity – since 2004 it has been known as HafenCity Hamburg GmbH. It is responsible for the "special city and port fund" under public law: sales of land and areas of HafenCity almost completely owned by the City of Hamburg finance the lion’s share of public investment, notably roads, bridges, squares, parks, quays and promenades. In addition to this financing responsibility, HafenCity Hamburg GmbH also clears and prepares sites, plans and builds infrastructure and public spaces, acquires and contracts real estate developers and larger users, and is responsible for public relations and communication.

HafenCity Hamburg GmbH is a 100 percent subsidiary of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg.  It is developing HafenCity at Hamburg’s behest.  Public supervision, cooperation, and the division of responsibilities are demanding: the supervisory board of HafenCity Hamburg GmbH consists of members of the city senate. Hamburg is a municipality and one of the 16 federal states of Germany. Sales and options (with an obligation to plan) on land purchases have to be approved by the Land Commission; zoning plans are subject to consultation and approval from the Commission of Urban Development (made up largely of parliamentary and local government representatives), zoning plans are processed by the Ministry of Urban Development and Environment and permits issued by it. Competition juries for urban planning and open space competitions as well as competitions for buildings are constituted, in addition to representatives of private developers and independent architects, by the Ministry of Urban Development and Environment (chief planning officer), the district council, HafenCity Hamburg GmbH and several politicians (from Mitte district or the city parliament).

By concentrating non-official functions in a dedicated development company of its own, Hamburg can ensure the efficiency and quality of the urban development project, yet through intensive division of labor and control also retain a high degree of public accountability.

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HafenCity Hamburg at EXPO REAL 2011 - Building Bridges to the Future

Green and yet metropolitan – that was the image HafenCity presented in Green Capital year 2011. Through an abundance of completed construction ventures and building projects, Hamburg’s newest city district has positioned itself successfully in many different respects as a sustainable yet urban city development project.

The first building in the district to be awarded the gold HafenCity Ecolabel in fall 2011 – Germany’s first certification system for sustainable construction – will be the Unilever head office for German-speaking countries, sited on Strandkai. Preliminary certification or firm applications for certification apply to a gross floor area (GFA) amounting to another 305,000m². Moreover, as HafenCity continues to spread from west to east and from north to south, the HafenCity Ecolabel will act as an additional spur to innovate, encouraging the construction of buildings that are more energy and resource-efficient to run. Aided by relevant conditions in tenders for building plots, the proportion of gold-certified buildings in the central and eastern neighbourhoods will be at least 50 per cent, and residential buildings probably 100 per cent.

HafenCity is becoming a greener place. Following the inauguration of Sandtorpark in April 2011, the first sections of centrally sited four-hectare Lohsepark will begin to appear from 2013. Bordered by two harbour basins, in the south it merges into a 20-meter wide green embankment beside the River Elbe extending for more than a kilometre.

But HafenCity’s sustainability strategy is based on much more than green spaces and green buildings: the dense, fine-grained mix of uses, encouragement of sustainable mobility – for instance with the U4 underground link from end 2012 and many cycling routes; a new hydrogen filling station for public buses and the dense network of footpaths, are all setting trends. In addition heating supply is also innovative, especially in eastern HafenCity where an extremely low CO² emission limit of 89 g/KWh will rule, utilizing largely renewable energy sources. Jürgen Bruns-Berentelg, chief executive of HafenCity Hamburg GmbH comments: “In spite of the many development tasks still ahead in the coming 15 years, already today HafenCity is setting outstanding international standards for major waterfront and city projects with its high urbanity and sustainability qualities.”

Eleven years after approval of the HafenCity Masterplan, all signs point to success for the project. Around 1700 people are already in residence (in future, 12,000); some 8,400 people are employed in some 300 businesses in the district.  The completion of the neighbourhoods of Am Sandtorpark / Grasbrook and Brooktorkai / Ericusspitze, where the Spiegel Group took possession of its new publishing house in September, means that now three neighbourhoods are ready – and thus all the northern areas of HafenCity bordering Hamburg city centre.

Meanwhile major building projects are under way in central HafenCity. Elbtorquartier on Magdeburger Hafen harbour basin – housing the German Greenpeace HQ, designport and apartments – is also under construction. Nearby HafenCity University is growing. From 2012, structural engineering commences in Am Lohsepark neighbourhood. Initially mixed-use buildings to accommodate about 300 housing units and additional kindergarten will be built on two plots.

The planning competition for Baakenhafen neighbourhood in eastern HafenCity was decided in September 2011. With its double waterfronts and new bridge crossing to be built by 2013, the neighbourhood is particularly well situated. The first plots will be put out to tender in the third quarter of 2012. A total 383,000m² GFA will be available here, for apartments, as well as offices, bars and restaurants, retail and leisure facilities.

 

For any enquiries, please contact:

Susanne Bühler, Press and PR head, Tel: +49 (0) 40 – 37 47 26 14, Mobile: +49 (0) 170 / 322 12 916; email: Buehler@HafenCity.com

Franka Kühn, Press and PR, Tel: +49 (0) 40 – 37 47 26 21, Mobile: +49 (0)151 / 17 15 98 05, Kuehn@HafenCity.com

 

HafenCity Hamburg GmbH, Osakaallee 11, 20457 Hamburg

Tel: +49 (0) 40 – 37 47 26 – 0, Fax: +49 (0) 40 – 37 47 26 26

www.HafenCity.com