Hamburg-Ottensen: Topping-out ceremony for the first 220 apartments in Max Brauer Quarter

Hamburg, 28/09/2023 | The Max Brauer Quartier in Hamburg-Ottensen is entering the home stretch. Just one year after the foundation stone was laid, around 400 guests gathered at noon today for the topping-out ceremony for the first two construction sites, ‘Charlotte’ and ‘Gustav.’ Craftsmen and project partners celebrated this milestone together with representatives from politics and the press, including Hamburg's Senator for Urban Development, Karen Pein.

The large-scale project is fully on schedule. By 2025, an urban quarter with more than 460 rental and owner-occupied apartments, privately financed and publicly subsidised, offices, a daycare centre and restaurants will be built on the 25,000 m² site at the corner of Friedensallee and Bahrenfelder Kirchenweg, based on designs by Schenk Fleischhaker Architekten from Hamburg. Currently, the shell construction is complete on two of the four building sites. The first facing work has also begun and most of the windows have been installed.

Max Brauer Quarter: Life will move in from mid-2024

Charlotte and Gustav are the first two construction phases of the quarter to be completed. They are named after Altona personalities and contemporaries of Max Brauer, namely writer Charlotte Niese and architect Gustav Oelsner. Charlotte will comprise 138 high-quality condominiums, which went on sale in 2022. Over 50 percent have already been sold. The 84 rental apartments in Gustav are expected to be available for rent in spring 2024. The construction site will also include a daycare centre for 110 children and approximately 1,100 m² of rental space for offices and restaurants. The first apartments will be ready for occupancy in mid-2024.

"The demolition work on the former Euler Hermes high-rise building in the middle of Altona was completed less than a year ago, and now the new Max Brauer Quartier urban development is already celebrating its topping-out ceremony. The shell is complete and the interior work on this exemplary project is beginning. But it's not just the schedule that's on track. More than 1,400 people will soon be moving into over 460 apartments here. Office space, restaurants and a daycare centre with around 100 places are being built. And the fact that, with over 160 subsidised apartments, the one-third mix has even been slightly exceeded would certainly have pleased the namesake: Max Brauer himself once successfully ensured more affordable housing in Hamburg," says Karen Pein, Senator for Urban Development and Housing.

A sustainable and vibrant neighbourhood is being created

"Charlotte and Gustav are being built to Efficiency House Standard 55. Green roofs are planned, as well as a photovoltaic system on the roof of Charlotte. The centrepiece of the neighbourhood will be a lively neighbourhood square with lots of greenery, a spacious playground and outdoor dining. Cars have been deliberately kept out of the neighbourhood. Nevertheless, there will be sufficient parking spaces and e-charging stations in underground car parks, as well as well over 1,000 parking spaces for bicycles and e-bikes,‘ says Philipp Schmitz-Morkramer, CEO of Quantum Immobilien AG, adding: ’We would like to thank everyone involved in the project who is supporting this construction project and ensuring progress day after day."

‘We are particularly pleased to be helping to shape the Max Brauer Quartier, a new, urban and hopefully very lively piece of city history that will provide living space for more than 1,400 people, and to be able to celebrate the topping-out ceremony today with everyone involved in the project,’ adds Nikolaus Ditting, managing partner of Richard Ditting GmbH & Co. KG.