An important impulse for Fürth’s city centre: Together with around 80 guests, Lord Mayor Dr. Thomas Jung, Christian Willert, Deputy Managing Director of the Pension Fund of the Schleswig-Holstein Dental Association, Michael Ehret, founder of ehret+klein, and Teresa Hennig, Technical Site Manager at ZECH Bau SE NL Nuremberg, celebrated the topping-out ceremony for the listed residential and commercial building at the southern end of Fürth’s pedestrian zone.
The revitalization of the department store known as the “Woolworth Building”, which began in April 2025, thus marks an important construction progress. The listed building, which was designed by architect Hans Paul Schmohl in 1956, covers a total area of around 8,600 square metres.
After the successful gutting of the building, the interior work on the upper floors and the retail space on the ground floor and basement has already begun. Woolworth will reopen its previous branch here in the future. At the same time, the ground floor ceiling was concreted inside, on which the shell of the extension has now been successfully completed. In the new building and on the upper floors of the portfolio, 100 serviced apartments are being built on around 3,600 square meters by ipartment, one of the leading providers of fully equipped design apartments in Germany.
“The comprehensive renovation of the Woolworth building is a great strengthening for the city centre and shopping city of Fürth in challenging times. In addition, the entrance gate to the pedestrian zone is also gaining in importance in terms of urban development,” says Dr. Thomas Jung, commenting on the milestone reached.
“I am pleased with the rapid progress of the construction work. After many years of standstill, Ehret+Klein AG has brought new momentum to the project, which we as owners are very pleased about. With this building, we are creating an important urban building block for Fürth’s city centre, which will take on a central hinge function and become an attractive meeting point for travellers and shoppers,” says Christian Willert, Deputy Managing Director of the pension fund of the Schleswig-Holstein Dental Association.
“This is how urban repair works: With the revitalization of the department store, we are partially rededicating former office and shop space into living space and expanding it. Through inner-city densification without additional sealing, we are creating new living space for Fürth’s city centre. The mix of uses of retail on the ground floor and living on the upper floors enlivens the city centre and ensures more footfall,” says Michael Ehret, founder of ehret+klein.
“The unknown is the most expensive building material. And if we want to change something in the construction industry, we have to take a closer look before the groundbreaking ceremony or even demolition. We are very pleased that our client has opted for a project management based on partnership with a pre-construction phase beforehand. Among other things, this made it possible to avoid the originally planned demolition of the courtyard ceiling. In addition to many other positive effects, the revitalization instead of demolition and new construction of the existing courtyard ceiling entails a saving of around 700 tons of demolition mass and about the same amount of new material savings,” adds Teresa Hennig, Technical Site Manager at ZECH Bau SE NL Nuremberg.
