LABORGH acquires historically significant site at Sportforum Berlin from a company advised by Periskop Development
LABORGH Investment and Periskop Development are continuing their successful collaboration to create affordable housing in Berlin. LABORGH has acquired the approximately 31,100 square metre site at Weißenseer Weg 51 / corner of Konrad-Wolf-Straße in Berlin-Lichtenberg from a company advised by Periskop Development. The purchase price was not disclosed.
The site is one of the most striking development sites in the Lichtenberg district: in the immediate vicinity of the Sportforum Berlin, at an entrance situation that characterises urban development. In recent years, Periscope Development has played a key role in advancing the planning requirements for the area and is supporting the ongoing development plan procedure as part of the joint implementation partnership. LABORGH is developing the site on the basis of an urban, mixed-use concept into a quarter with affordable housing, complementary commercial uses and social infrastructure.
Approximately 700 residential units are planned, which will be transferred to the portfolio of a state-owned housing association after completion. The quarter will be supplemented by around 15,000 square metres of gross floor space for commercial purposes. Among other things, areas for local supply, small-scale retail, a daycare center, medical services and other educational and neighborhood-related uses are planned. Construction is scheduled to start in 2027, subject to the ongoing development plan procedure.
The site of the former sports hotel and congress centre Hohenschönhausen is an example of what Berlin needs in many places: the activation of long-blocked areas and their transfer to a use that makes sense in terms of urban development, is economically realistic and socially effective. In the future, LABORGH will continue to look for suitable plots of land with development potential.
“This property is special in many ways: because of its size, its location and its history. Above all, however, because it has remained unused for decades and has shaped the urban space as a ruin. I am very pleased that we can now transfer this location to concrete, sustainable development. This is exactly what we see as our task: to develop complex Berlin locations responsibly and to put them to a use that serves the city in the long term,” says Florian Lanz, Managing Director of LABORGH Investment GmbH.
“We are very pleased to further develop this prominent area together with LABORGH and thus make a concrete contribution to the creation of urgently needed housing in Berlin. A place that had lain fallow for decades will once again become an active part of the city: at least 70,000 m² of floor space will be created – with a residential share of 80 percent, which will be handed over to a state-owned housing association. This is urban responsibility in practice,” says Dr. Simon Kempf, Managing Director of Periskop Development GmbH.
The property is historically closely linked to the Sportforum Berlin. The former Sporthotel Hohenschönhausen was built in the 1960s as accommodation for GDR competitive sports and expanded in the 1980s to include a sports and congress centre. For many years, the complex was considered a prestige building before vacancy, decay and an increasingly ruinous state set in after the fall of the Berlin Wall. For a long time, the area was one of the best-known problem properties in the east of Berlin and at the same time one of the most important inner-city development potentials in Lichtenberg. Its immediate location at the Sportforum Berlin as well as the very good connection via the tram lines M5, M6 and M13 and the nearby S-Bahn connection Landsberger Allee underline the urban development importance of the location. With the planned development, a place that had lain fallow for decades is to become an active part of the city again.
