Catella ground-breaking ceremony for the Düssel-Terrassen

Almost 100 interested neighbours, project participants, banks, financiers and representatives of the ministry and the district government came to the construction site at Schlüterstrasse 16-20 on Friday and were able to watch as Mayor Christoph Schultz, Karl-Peter Arnolds of the Nesseler Group and Klaus Franken of Catella ceremoniously turned the first sod for the Düssel-Terrassen.

Mayor Christoph Schultz is delighted that things are getting underway: “The start of construction on the Düssel-Terrassen will not only create urgently needed, affordable living space for families, senior citizens and young people in the heart of Alt-Erkrath. This construction project impressively demonstrates that climate protection and socially responsible housing construction, forward-looking urban planning and social cohesion can go hand in hand. ”

As part of the nationwide investment programme “Cooperative Innovative Living Germany”, or “CILG” for short, Catella is developing a new, sustainable urban quarter with around 800 rental and owner-occupied flats for all age and income groups on the abandoned commercial site. The investment volume amounts to around 400 million euros. It is only 9 minutes from the neighbouring S-Bahn station to Dusseldorf's main railway station.

With the CILG residential construction programme, Catella is aiming to create sustainable, profitable and affordable living space, thereby sending a strong signal against the stagnating construction development in Germany. “Innovation and cooperation are the two headlines of the sustainable investment programme,” says Klaus Franken, CEO of Catella Project Management. "We have redefined residential construction. It is planned differently, built differently and the entire process has been optimised - this has enabled us to significantly reduce construction costs. By 2030, we will realise around 10,000 new residential units in Germany in this way. Based on the target identity, this will be achieved in good harmony with politics, administration and users."

The Düssel-Terrassen are proof that it works: Planning permission for the first construction phase was granted within just two months. Construction work will start in August and completion is planned for mid-2027. Planning permission for the next 94 residential units and 3 commercial units is also expected shortly.

The three buildings at Schlüterstraße 16 - 20 will offer a diverse mix of 2-, 3- and 4-room flats (from 61 sqm to 99 sqm). With rents of EUR 7.40 per square metre, urgently needed, affordable living space is being created here. The developer has committed to a long-term investment; the flats will remain rent-controlled for at least 30 years as part of the subsidy.

The Düssel-Terrassen are the second largest KlimaQuartier.NRW certified by the state government and are already focusing on optimised sustainability in the first construction phase: all 54 residential units will be built energy-efficiently to the Efficiency House Standard 40 and the roof surfaces of the buildings will be equipped with photovoltaic systems. To generate heat, the residential units and the future neighbourhood will have their own local heating network, as Catella has already implemented in the largest KlimaQuartier.NRW project, Seestadt. There it was shown that the ancillary costs for the tenants could be significantly reduced and purely regenerative systems without gas and oil achieved excellent results. "Climate protection pays off," emphasises Klaus Franken. “We're not doing this because Brussels or Berlin are making up requirements - investing in climate protection pays off for the tenants and for us.”

“We are delighted to be working with Catella to create new living space in the current tense situation on the housing market,” says Karl-Peter Arnolds, CEO of Nesseler. “We are particularly pleased to be able to work with Catella and Mr Franken to create new living space quickly and affordably through an innovative process - bringing together all those involved in planning and construction from the design phase, also known as “design and build”.”

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from left to right: Lara Aigner (Nesseler Bau), Karl Arnolds (Nesseler Bau), Carola Beck (Alderwoman of the City of Erkrath), Klaus Franken (Catella), Christoph Schultz (Mayor of the City of Erkrath), Katja Bettina Schmidt (Officer, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy of the State of NRW), Christian Schölzel (Treasurer of the district of Mettmann)

from left to right: Klaus Franken (Catella), Christoph Schultz (Mayor of the City of Erkrath)

About Düssel-Terrassen

With the Düssel-Terrassen, Catella is building an attractive urban neighbourhood for singles, couples, commuters, silver surfers and families alike on an area of over 7.5 hectares in the immediate vicinity of the pedestrian zone of Alt-Erkrath and the S-Bahn station. In addition to a good 800 rental and owner-occupied flats for all ages and income brackets, a 4-stream daycare centre, modern mobility facilities, a parcel station and other neighbourhood services are being built.

From compact 1-room studios to spacious 5-room flats and terraced houses, all types of flats are on offer at Düssel-Terrassen. All flats are barrier-free and have large balconies or terraces, spacious living and dining areas with floor-to-ceiling windows, attractive bathrooms and storage rooms in the flat. The highlight of the neighbourhood is the stepped development with a difference in height of up to 30 metres - allowing the view to sweep westwards over the Düssel floodplains to the television tower.

A central element of the Düssel-Terrassen will be the “green centre”. The blossoming open space and leisure landscape with its loosely planted fruit trees, larger shrubs and seating steps will turn the “green centre” into an oasis of adventure and well-being in the middle of the neighbourhood. The generously designed play areas with climbing frames, slides, seesaws and swings offer plenty of fun for residents of all ages. In total, the green spaces in the entire neighbourhood cover around 10,000 sqm.

In 2020, the Düssel-Terrassen were certified as a climate protection neighbourhood by the NRW Ministry of Economic Affairs and the EnergyAgency.NRW, followed by certification as a KlimaQuartier.NRW in 2023. The awards were given for the holistically convincing energy concept, based on the triad of energy generation, supply and consumption and the attractive urban design. The use of renewable energy sources, heating networks with lower flow temperatures and, of course, modern building concepts combine to create a neighbourhood development geared towards climate protection. However, the use of innovative technologies not only offers benefits for the environment, but also for the residents: the reduction in heating costs (heating and hot water) and the reduction in energy consumption bring tangible monetary benefits for all residents of the Catella project.

About Catella Project Management

Catella creates living spaces: Catella Project Management develops new neighbourhoods with a long-term perspective. The company implements the concept of the “10-minute city”, with a mix of commercial and residential uses, attractive living space for everyone, a sustainable working environment and diversity that ensures the sustainable value of the neighbourhood. New mobility concepts make it possible to give people back the open space in the city; the areas between the buildings are landscaped and designed for people to stay and meet. The districts developed by Catella are in central locations, are planned to be both car-friendly and car-poor and are designed to be forward-looking overall. The guidelines of the ICG's Social Impact Investing Initiative, which Catella Project Management helped to develop and finance, won the imAward in the Social Responsibility category in 2022. With the Catella program “Cooperative Innovative Living Germany” (CILG), Catella developed a construction kit with 12 tools - innovation and cooperation are the keywords here.

Previous projects include Living Circle in Düsseldorf, Living Lyon in Frankfurt and various commercial projects, such as the C&A headquarters and Telekom's largest service centre. The Seestadt and Düssel-Terrassen district developments are the two largest certified KlimaQuartiere.NRW projects in NRW. Around 4,000 new apartments are currently being built in the Rhineland alone, including 147 subsidised apartments in Grand Central at Düsseldorf Central Station, which were completed in autumn 2023. In the office segment, Catella is focussing on top CBD locations such as the green lighthouse project KöTower, the only high-rise project on the elegant Königsallee in Düsseldorf.

Catella Project Management is part of the Catella Group, Stockholm, a leading specialist in property investments and fund management, with operations in 12 countries. The group has approximately EUR 14 billion in assets under management. Catella is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm in the Mid Cap segment.

Press Contact
Klaus Franken
+ 49 211 90 99 35 10
+49 172 3181210
klaus.franken@catella-pm.de