The textiles and apparel retailer Ernsting’s family is boosting its presence in the area around the station in Hamburg-Altona; the brand recently opened a branch at Neue Grosse Bergstrasse 12-16 in Altona old town in premises brokered by GPP-member Grossmann & Berger. Ernsting’s family existing store in the Mercado shopping centre on Ottenser Hauptstrasse will remain open. The new shop occupies some 180 m² of sales space on the ground floor with an additional 155 m² of storage space in the basement. Its shop window faces onto the district’s ‘main artery’ and stretches along almost the entire front of the building. This property is in the most-frequented section of the pedestrian area between Altona station and IKEA furniture store. Douglas, a drugstore, used to occupy the space.
Lessee: Textile trade “Made in Coesfeld”
Ernsting’s family has its registered office in Coesfeld (Westphalia) and employs some 12,260 people in around 1,955 branches in Germany and Austria. As one of Germany’s biggest textiles retailers, it sells a range of fashion and accessories for the entire family. The best-selling items are underwear and clothing for women and children. Kurt Ernsting laid the foundation for his enterprise in 1967 and it has traded under its current name since 1990.
Location: Phoenix Neue Grosse Bergstrasse
Neue Grosse Bergstrasse, which forms part of the centre of the Borough of Altona, was developed in the 1970s as an element in Germany’s first big-city pedestrian precinct. Unlike the area around Ottenser Hauptstrasse in the west, the eastern part of the Borough centre was not continuously improved and developed. In 2003 Karstadt and the Hamburg housing company SAGA, then the prime generators of footfall, both left the Neue Grosse Bergstrasse, leaving the two large building complexes ‘Frappant’ and ‘Forum Altona’ practically empty. These events accelerated the downwards spiral that had already begun and between 2005 and 2017 Hamburg reacted by investing heavily in refurbishment and restructuring. After IKEA opened its first-ever furniture store in a city centre on Neue Grosse Bergstrasse in 2014 and steps had been taken to greatly boost the local residential population, the street regained its position as the ‘main artery’ in east Altona.
Second let for Ernsting's family via Grossmann & Berger
In 2016 Grossmann & Berger had already brokered a lease for Ernsting’s family, when the firm took a 380-square-metre shop at Königstrasse 43 in Elmshorn.