Client story

From half-empty Liliencarré to the popular convenience shopping center Lili

Rescue for insolvent shopping center: During operation with open shops, we redesign the Liliencarré in terms of content, construction and atmosphere, keep existing tenants and generate new anchor tenants.

Time

Restructuring 2016-2019

Square Metres

More than 22.000 m2

Shops

over 50 Shops

Value

Invested 35 Mio. netto

The Liliencarré at the Wiesbaden main station could not fulfill the expectations of the tenants or the investors in the first years after the opening in 2007. The reasons for this were manifold. In particular, due to the cool atmosphere and the confusing inner routing, the customer frequency remained too low.

In 2009, the former operator filed for bankruptcy. He handed over the property to the insolvency administrator along with long-term leases with anchor tenants such as Saturn and Rossmann. Today's owner is a subsidiary of Orion European Real Estate Fund IV, C.V., sponsored by Orion Capital Managers, who commissioned us in 2015 as a general planner with a major revitalization and redesign.

Management marathon during operation

Despite high-quality appearance, the customers did not accept the Liliencarré at the beginning. From the beginning it was clear that the successful redesign of the approximately 25,000 square meter Liliencarré will not be a sprint, but rather a challenging long-distance run with numerous obstacles.

The future-proof rescue concept was developed at an early stage: away from the classic shopping center to a hybrid mall with a large food market, an open dining plaza and a demand-driven and close-to-life mix of offers. The center now covers the needs of rail travelers and office workers in the immediate vicinity. On the other hand, it is a central starting point for the classic weekly shopping at REWE and Aldi for customers within a radius of 25 km and allows them to stroll around Saturn, Rossmann, H & M, New Yorker and Toys'R'Us and many other tenants.

As part of the customer-centric Holistic Circle, JLL has taken on a variety of management roles, starting with negotiations with existing tenants. It continued with the convincing of the acquisition of new anchor tenants and chain stores due to the initially bad reputation of the property. And with the necessary conversion measures, restrictive requirements had to be complied with. Since their launch in 2016, these have been completed in lengthy individual steps during operation. It had to be ensured constant accessibility as well as lift operation, accessible customer toilets and protection in shell work. Due to the neighboring hotel business there were only narrow time windows for noisy building activities. The coordination with building authority, fire brigade, tenants, hotel, and trades required a detailed as well as sensitive organization and communication.

We took over all disciplines in-house as part of the general planning mandate – from acquisition to planning, center management, leasing, and tenant care to time management and coordination of all external planners for structural design, building services and fire protection.

Mission accomplished: Lili is very popular

We have completely reorganized the Liliencarré in close cooperation with Orion. A long way with great results.

Carsten Schilk, JLL Team Leader Asset Management Architecture Berlin

Open and transparent, the significantly enlarged two-storey entrance hall welcomes passers-by and visitors alike and offers insights into the friendly Lili. The attractive Dining Plaza invites you to linger, and visitors can now find a harmoniously mixed shopping offering for everyday needs, fashion, electronics and more – including Wiesbaden's largest REWE market. Newly installed moving walkways into the comfortable parking floors of the building enable the convenient transport of packed shopping carts.

The last construction works are underway and will be completed in 2019, as hitherto professionally coordinated and with no restrictions on ongoing operations or even road closures. As a general planner and architect, JLL keeps all costs and deadlines and hands the owner a hybrid mall with the best prospects in a central location, which enjoys great acceptance among customers and tenants.