Frankfurt: Corona closes stores in Zeil. The commercial mile is threatened by desertification

Frankfurt’s business mile is facing a major upheaval. Several anchor tenants in the Zeil will close this year. Corona has exacerbated a trend.

Frankfurt – The Zeil shopping street in Frankfurt there is a risk of temporary desertification. In addition to the Karstadt department store, at least two other large stores in central Frankfurt will close by the end of the year: the clothing stores Zara and Esprit. Joachim Stoll, President of the Frankfurt Retail Association, stated: “We are in big trouble.” Corona-Pandemie they have exacerbated a medium-term trend. the Zeil as a “sophisticated vending machine,” according to Stoll, it is currently stuttering considerably. There is a shortage of tourists, fair guests and travelers who normally work in Frankfurt and are currently in the Home Office and therefore buy in your hometown instead of in the center of Frankfurt. “The further you are from Zeil go away, the more relaxed the situation is, ”says Stoll, who runs a leather goods and luggage store in the Zeil operates and is currently large there Sales problems hat.

Vacancies, as can be expected in the Zeil from the end of the year, are what they do shopping street no more attractive. With Esprit, Zeil will temporarily lose at least 3,000 square meters of retail space in a prime location. It is the largest store in the national chain. “We’ll miss you here” is currently stamped in large letters on Esprit windows. Currently up to 50 percent discount is given on the five floors not far from Hauptwache. Who on the Zeil take a walk, find many of these ultra discounts. The Appelrath & Cüpper women’s outfitter even offers discounts of up to 70 percent. The national fashion chain filed for bankruptcy in the spring. It is still open if the branch in the middle of the Zeil will be retained. Negotiations with the owner are ongoing.

Due to the Corona crisis, the situation is getting worse for Zeil dealers

The end of the year for the Zara branch in Zeil is already certain. The reasons for this are not entirely clear. Because Zara belongs to the Spanish group Inditex and had made good profits in recent years. More recently it was said that the group wanted to focus on its lucrative branches in prime locations. But that would actually speak against a branch in the Zeil. Marcel Schäuble, Verdi’s trade union secretary for the textile sector, suspects that Zara has a flagship solution in mind in Frankfurt as in Hamburg or Berlin. Now there are pickup stations for Online trading integrated into shops, which require large storage areas. The Zara branch in Zeil has 2,000 square meters of retail space, but little storage space.

In any case, many surfaces appear to be in the Zeil it is no longer fully up to date. Aniko Korsos, the retail expert at major real estate agent Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), reveals that there are still requests for commercial space at the Zeil, which, however, often cannot be catered for. “The perfect store can hardly be found in the Zeil,” says Korsos. A well-designed 100 square meters are perfect, for which you still pay maximum rents of 310 euros per square meter. Larger, well-designed areas were also requested on one level, for example for the food sector, without the areas currently being available.

There is definitely Vacancy in the Zeil. Realtor JLL currently has a 4.5 percent vacancy rate in the best downtown locations. Ten years ago, the value was 0.1 percent. The figures for the so-called available space are even more drastic. By this, real estate agents are referring to spaces that will become vacant in the next year and a half because leases expire or tenants are looking for new tenants. According to JLL, this so-called availability rate is currently 29.5 percent, the highest value since it was recorded. Almost a third of the land in the Zeil and neighboring towns like Roßmarkt, Biebergasse and Goethestrasse will soon be empty.

The city center of Frankfurt is facing a huge commercial commotion and also one construction site or another. There are already gaps in so-called prime locations in the city center. The largest of them is in Biebergasse, where shoe salesman Goertz moved. The neighboring store is also empty. Both objects must be rebuilt.

The demolition of the Karstadt on the Zeil in the next few years, which would result in a gigantic work similar to the previous one in the My Zeil shopping center. Realtor Korsos describes such demolition and new construction as desirable. Different types of use are needed for the upper floors than before. Many retailers would also want to reduce their retail space.

Karstadt auf der Zeil will probably be demolished

Certainly, many retailers are also aiming for lower rents. Frankfurt retail manager Stoll fears that many office towers in Frankfurt will continue after the pandemic remain empty and there are no travelers as customers. According to a survey by the Bavarian Research Institute for Digital Transformation, 69 percent of those surveyed said they wanted to work more from home even after the pandemic. With sales continuing to decline, many industries are likely to no longer pay Zeil preferential rents. “We will probably have to mask a lot to get rents down,” Stoll looks ahead. The retailer wants ideas for meaningful workarounds from the real estate industry and concepts from the policy so that there is no permanent downward spiral from which businesses suffer, which are actually doing quite well.

Stoll points out that these concepts should be well thought out in changing times. Two years ago, for example, the My Zeil shopping center was seen as having a promising future Solution of a cinema and lots of gastronomy on the top floor. But also in My zeil Currently there is vacancy in almost all plants. (By Oliver Teutsch)