One of Berlin's most recognisable high-street shopping destinations is reinventing itself in real time, and the deal just signed is the clearest indicator yet of how far that reinvention has progressed. FU.Life Group has agreed a long-term lease for 217 fully furnished serviced apartments at Boulevard Berlin, the landmark shopping centre on Schlosstrasse in Berlin-Steglitz, one of Germany's strongest retail high streets, occupying approximately 12,000 m² of space across apartments, communal areas and terraces as part of the centre's transformation into a next-generation mixed-use urban destination. The opening is targeted for 2028, with Dunman Capital acting as operating partner for the ownership of the property, managing a repositioning of scale, ambition and, notably, already demonstrating substantial occupier momentum.
FU.Life Group will occupy the 12,000 m² across three distinct components: approximately 8,000 m² dedicated to the 217 fully furnished serviced apartments, approximately 3,000 m² of central atrium designed as a vibrant social and community hub, and roughly 1,000 m² of terraces and shared amenity areas. Rather than a stand-alone residential scheme dropped into a failing retail building, the concept integrates living into a functioning urban ecosystem. Residents will have direct access to Boulevard Berlin's established restaurants, cafes, fitness and wellness facilities and coworking spaces, along with direct connectivity to the U-Bahn station integrated into the property, giving the scheme the kind of transport adjacency that purpose-built residential developments in most German cities cannot match.
Josip Kardun, Managing Partner, Dunman Capital, said: "The agreement represents a major milestone in the transformation of Boulevard Berlin and underlines the strong potential of mixed-use concepts for prime inner-city assets. With more than 50% of the repositioned space already let, we are well on track to deliver our vision of a vibrant, future-focused urban destination. We would like to thank FU.Life for the trustful and constructive cooperation. Their strong expertise in residential concepts, hospitality-driven operations and community-focused living makes them an ideal partner for this project."
Henning Zimmermann, Managing Partner, Dunman Capital, added: "FU.Life is a key partner in bringing our vision for this property to life. Its expertise in residential development, community-focused living concepts and property management is instrumental in creating a sustainable lifestyle destination with long-term appeal. This collaboration reflects Dunman Capital's core strength in repositioning complex existing properties and combining them with the right operational partners. Together, we are establishing the foundation for a vibrant mixed-use environment while further advancing the repositioning and leasing of the property."
Georg Haider, Managing Partner, FU.Life Group, commented: "Boulevard Berlin is more than a redevelopment project; it is a blueprint for how established commercial destinations can evolve into vibrant, mixed-use Lifestyle Living environments designed around the way people want to live, work and connect today. FU.Life's operational platform, residential expertise and community-led approach will play a central role in this transformation. By bringing together high-quality homes, thoughtful services and shared experiences, we will create a distinctive urban destination with a strong sense of place and community."
Eyal Gicelter, Managing Partner, FU.Life Group, said: "Boulevard Berlin represents exactly the type of project we believe will shape the future of urban living. Instead of developing residential space as a standalone product, we are integrating living into an established destination where retail, hospitality, mobility, fitness and community already exist. For FU.Life, this is the next evolution of Commercial Living: transforming existing urban assets into complete Lifestyle Living environments built around how people actually live."
What the announcement does not foreground, but what matters most to developers and investors evaluating mixed-use retail conversion strategies across Germany, are two structural points. The first is the pre-letting milestone. With more than 50% of the repositioned space at Boulevard Berlin already let well before FU.Life's apartments open in 2028, Dunman Capital is inverting the conventional repositioning sequence, achieving majority occupancy during active construction, not after it. That pre-letting performance materially de-risks the investment thesis and provides a compelling proof point for the broader argument that the highest-quality high-street retail buildings are better candidates for proactive mixed-use repositioning than distressed secondary centres. The second point concerns FU.Life's operating model. Rather than acquiring or developing, FU.Life enters on a long-term operating lease, absorbing tenancy risk in exchange for operational control. For property owners holding underperforming retail floors but lacking appetite for capital-intensive conversion programmes, that lease-based operator model opens a repositioning route with no requirement to sell the asset or fund a development, a genuinely new tool for asset managers sitting on complex legacy retail stock.
FU.Life Group develops, operates and scales Lifestyle Living, Longstay, Hospitality and Student Housing concepts across Germany, the United Kingdom, Scandinavia, Spain, Portugal and the Benelux countries, with more than 9,000 units in operation, development and management. Berlin serves as one of its key strategic markets. Dunman Capital, founded in 2019 by Josip Kardun and Henning Zimmermann and operating from Frankfurt, Berlin and London, manages approximately €2.1bn in assets and specialises in repositioning retail real estate into contemporary urban mixed-use assets across Germany's key metropolitan markets.
People mentioned:
- Josip Kardun, Managing Partner, Dunman Capital
- Henning Zimmermann, Managing Partner, Dunman Capital
- Georg Haider, Managing Partner, FU.Life Group
- Eyal Gicelter, Managing Partner, FU.Life Group
Companies mentioned:
- FU.Life Group, pan-European Lifestyle Living and serviced apartment operator, signing the long-term lease for 217 apartments and 12,000 m² at Boulevard Berlin
- Boulevard Berlin, landmark shopping centre on Schlosstrasse in Berlin-Steglitz, undergoing phased transformation into a mixed-use urban destination
- Dunman Capital, Frankfurt, Berlin and London-based investment and asset manager acting as operating partner for the ownership of Boulevard Berlin, managing approximately €2.1bn in assets
- TMRW Inc., image rights holder for photography of the Boulevard Berlin development
Image: Boulevard Berlin ground-floor development. Source: TMRW Inc.
