Panattoni Develops City Dock in Essen

• First City Dock rises in North Rhine-Westphalia
• Innovative business park is located in the centre of the Oberhausen, Gelsenkirchen and Bottrop high-density areas
• Completion is scheduled for mid-2022

Panattoni, the leading project developer for industrial and logistics properties in Europe, is realising an innovative business park in Essen based on the “City Dock” concept. The project is the first City Dock location in the North Rhine-Westphalia centre of commerce and industry.

The City Dock is rising in the centre of the Oberhausen, Gelsenkirchen and Bottrop high-density areas and features excellent connections to the A42, A40 and A2 highways, as well as to the local public transit network. Panattoni realises the business park on a brown-field plot sized about 23 hectares that was previously used as an educational centre; during construction, it aspires to the DGNB [German Sustainable Building Council] gold standard. The City Dock includes 10 units in 3 buildings with rental areas from around 2,500 to about 6,000 m² and rises in the immediate vicinity of the existing Panattoni Park Essen.

This development is the third City Dock project that Panattoni is realising since 2019. Two additional City Docks are rising for the developer at the Berlin Spandau and Falkensee locations. In Spandau, Panattoni is developing a floor space of about 15,000 sqm on a former industrial site, at the Berlin Falkensee location, construction for the innovative business park is scheduled for July 2021. There, the project developer is realising an overall floor space of 14,200 sqm, divided into several units.

With the "City Dock” concept, Panattoni presents a novel solution for developing commercial areas in urban locations that appeal to a wide range of users due to their design flexibility. Small and mid-sized companies, light industry, crafts and trade, in particular, as well as start-ups, benefit here from the spaces’ demand-oriented usability and constant expandability, as well as from excellent connections.

“We are especially happy about the development of the City Docks in Essen. We are realising the business park without pre-letting to enable us to serve the surplus in demand for modern spaces early on and proactively,” Fred-Markus Bohne, Panattoni managing partner, says. “The City Docks in Essen feature an impressive location with excellent infrastructure close to various production and logistics companies. The modular, as well as functional concept for the spaces makes settling there attractive for many different users, each with their own specific requirements. The location also benefits from the strengthening of the regional economy, as well as from revitalisation of the wasteland.”

Panattoni will begin to dismantle the existing building in mid-2021, the project developer plans completion by mid-2022.