Berlin, Germany: CityHub, the Amsterdam-founded pod hotel brand, has signed a lease on about 2,100 m² of vacant retail space at Leipziger Platz 15 in Berlin Mitte and will convert it into a 139-hub hotel in partnership with Columbia Threadneedle Investments. The project, due to open in Q4 2027, subject to confirmation, marks CityHub's first Berlin location and its broader entry into the German market, with Hamburg also confirmed in the pipeline.
The building forms part of a three-property ensemble at Leipziger Platz 14-16, a prime mixed-use asset of more than 20,000 m² situated between Potsdamer Platz and the Mall of Berlin, with anchor tenants including Uniqlo and Design Offices. The CityHub lease fills a portion of the building that had been sitting vacant, replacing a liability on the rent roll with a hospitality occupier generating footfall in one of central Berlin's most visible locations. The hotel will offer 122 standard hubs and 17 accessible hubs, alongside shared facilities including a sauna, communal bathrooms and social spaces.
For real estate investors and asset managers, the transaction points to something broader than a single hotel deal. Across European cities, mixed-use and high-street commercial buildings are carrying floors of structurally vacant retail that no traditional shop operator wants at scale. CityHub's prefabricated, modular hub system is specifically engineered to fit within existing floor plates without full structural intervention, enabling faster delivery and significantly lower carbon emissions than a ground-up new-build. That makes hotel operators of this type a credible new demand source for landlords with stranded retail floors in well-located urban buildings, particularly as planning frameworks in several European cities are easing restrictions on retail-to-hospitality change of use.
"Our goal is to create a network of CityHub Hotels across Europe that gives travellers an affordable, sustainable experience while allowing them to connect with the cities they visit. Berlin's energy, culture and global appeal make it a natural next step in our expansion."
"This project demonstrates how CityHub can unlock the potential of existing urban buildings in Europe's busiest cities through our prefabricated Hub concept. By combining adaptive reuse with our modular, plug-and-play design, we can transform underused commercial space into high-quality hotels more quickly and with significantly lower carbon emissions than a new-build development. It allows us to become part of established neighbourhoods while creating a more sustainable model for future city hotels."
Remco Gerritsen, CEO, CityHub
"Our own stay at CityHub Copenhagen confirmed that the concept is compelling both from a guest perspective and as an investment proposition. The combination of an innovative lodging experience, strong customer acceptance, and a convincing value-for-money offering creates an attractive investment opportunity. Rather than competing with established hotel formats, CityHub serves as a new and complementary addition to the existing hospitality landscape. Its long-term value potential is further supported by the positive assessments of independent advisors and valuation experts."
Vincent Frommel, Head of Fund Management and Debt Finance and Member of the Executive Board Germany, Columbia Threadneedle Investments
CityHub currently operates hotels in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Copenhagen and Reykjavik. The Berlin signing, its first in Germany, confirms a deliberate strategy of targeting large, high-footfall European cities where demand for affordable, design-led urban accommodation is structurally undersupplied. For developers and fund managers reviewing their mixed-use portfolios, the model is worth examining closely: a hospitality operator capable of absorbing 2,000 m² or more of commercially underperforming floor space, fitting out quickly with a modular system and generating a new, income-producing lease with institutional backing is a solution that has historically been absent from the landlord toolkit.
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People mentioned
- Remco Gerritsen, CEO, CityHub
- Vincent Frommel, Head of Fund Management and Debt Finance and Member of the Executive Board Germany, Columbia Threadneedle Investments
Companies and organisations mentioned
- CityHub, Amsterdam-founded pod hotel brand; tenant and hotel operator converting vacant retail space at Leipziger Platz 15, Berlin
- Columbia Threadneedle Investments, global asset manager; investment partner and landlord of the Leipziger Platz 14-16 building ensemble
- Uniqlo, Japanese fashion retailer; anchor tenant in the Leipziger Platz ensemble
- Design Offices, German coworking and flexible workspace operator; anchor tenant in the Leipziger Platz ensemble
