Capital of Culture 2010: Essen Gets a New Trade Show Hotel

The City of Essen will get a new trade show hotel. Zechbau Group will open a four-star-plus category hotel for about €30 million in immediate proximity of the Grugahalle. The hotel will feature a restaurant, bar, wellness area and conference rooms. All in all, conference space for up to 700 guests is supposed to be created.

The Essen Trade Show has requested a four-star hotel directly on the trade show premises for almost two decades. The new trade show hotel will be completed in time for 2010, the year of the Capital of Culture. Work is scheduled to begin this year still upon receipt of the building permit in the fall.

The Essen Trade Show has assigned the properties to Zechbau Group by means of a Europe-wide award procedure. In addition to the requirements for the hotel construction, Essen Trade Show had also invited bids for the expansion of the logistics area. The procedure was implemented in consideration of the high requirements for real estate transactions in terms of procurement law set by Higher Regional Court Düsseldorf (OLG Düsseldorf, Decision dated June 13, 2007, file no. VII-Verg 02/07 et al.). The Open Procedure was selected for the award procedure in order to carry out the bidding procedure as quickly and efficiently as possible. Including the preparation time required for the procedure, it was completed in less than three months.

Dr. Ute Jasper from the Düsseldorf office of Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek were responsible for the entire legal assistance in connection with the award procedure, in particular the drafting of the award documents at a very short turnaround time.