DLA Piper has advised a consortium comprising the banks, Helaba Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen and Bayerische Landesbank, a German real estate financier and commercial bank respectively, on the financing of the UpperZeil development in Frankfurt. It contains 14,840-m² of commercial space and is located in the inner city area of Frankfurt.   

The UpperZeil development will replace the Zeilgalerie shopping centre, which was constructed in 1992. The new commercial building will be built over seven storeys and is due to open in the latter part of 2018. The space is fully let by four tenants: GALERIA Kaufhof, Vodafone, RESERVED and Benetton.

Development owners RFR and DC Values intend to dismantle the Zeilgalerie leaving only the basement storeys, onto which the new building designed by the Frankfurt office of KSP Jürgen Engel Architekten is to be erected.

As one of the largest German real estate financiers, Helaba offers financial services to companies, banks, institutional investors and the public sector, both within Germany and internationally. It also acts as a central clearing institution and service provider for 40 per cent of German savings banks.

BayernLB is the leading commercial bank for large and middle-market companies in Germany. It has positioned itself as the Bavarian bank for the Germany economy, and is also one of the leading real estate financiers and asset managers in the country.

The DLA Piper team led by partner Frank Schwem (Finance & Projects, Frankfurt) included partner Dr Martin Haller (Real Estate, Munich), senior associate Dr Katalin Legradi, associates Martin Wilmsen (both Finance & Projects, Frankfurt) and Dr Manuel Indlekofer (Real Estate, Munich), as well as partner Jack Kantrowitz (Finance) from New York.