Rewe, the German supermarket and retail group, has acquired a 120,000 square meter site  from Fraport Immobilienservice und –entwicklungs GmbH – a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fraport AG – for constructing a cold storage food warehouse at the Monchhof development area near Frankfurt Airport (FRA). Making the announcement, Fraport AG executive board chairman Dr. Stefan Schulte said: “With conclusion of the Rewe contract, some 35 percent of the Monchhof area has already been marketed. This underscores the unabated interest in Monchhof as a top logistics location in the immediate vicinity of Frankfurt Airport as well as FRA’s importance as a hub for foodstuffs and perishable produce.”

Rewe will initially build a 28,000 square-meter storage hall which can be expanded to 41,600 square meters, explained Schulte. The first construction phase is scheduled to be completed by the middle of 2011.  

“The success in marketing Monchhof confirms our concept of mixed-use logistics, office and retail operations near Frankfurt Airport,” Schulte pointed out. More than 700 jobs have been created so far at companies depending on the FRA mobility hub. These include:

the state-of-the-art express center for DHL, the branch office of airport retailer Gebruder Heinemann, and facilities for Internet trader Dress for Less. When completed, the Monchhof logistics park is expected to employ a total of 6,500 people. Offering a central strategic location in Europe, Monchhof features perfect transportation links because of its proximity to Frankfurt Airport and direct access to the A3 and A67 autobahns as well as the B43 federal highway.

The 110-hectare Monchhof development area is marketed by Fraport Immobilienservice und –entwicklungs GmbH & CO.KG (Fraport Immo), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fraport AG. Fraport Immo implemented its first own building project last year at Monchhof in partnership with MP Holding. Under an eleven-year lease-hold agreement, approximately 2,800 square meters of office space and a 4,200 square-meter logistics hall were leased to Expeditors, a globally operating logistics company headquartered in Seattle, U.S.A.