Sustainable buildings and sustainable mobility

Deka Immobilien pursues an end-to-end approach

Deka Immobilien supports its tenants and the users of its buildings with a variety of initiatives and continues to gradually expand the necessary charging infrastructure in Germany and abroad. We pursue an end-to-end approach at our buildings in order to link potential sustainability measures in the property with each other in a manner that makes technological sense. This includes integrating a photovoltaic system to allow the building to generate its own electricity, using intelligent storage charging systems to offset peak loads in the power grid or carrying out overarching dynamic load management to enable the charging infrastructure to be controlled according to needs.

Today (as at December 2024), Deka Immobilien’s portfolio already includes around 3,000 charging points at some 130 locations worldwide. This corresponds to an expansion of around 500 charging stations compared to 2023.

There are lots of reasons to expand the electromobility infrastructure in the real estate sector.

Refuelling at the TOWER185 office high-rise in Frankfurt – Germany’s largest electricity charging station

TOWER185 in Frankfurt’s Europaviertel district is an example of how tenants’ wishes and sustainable mobility can be optimally combined. In February 2022, Deka Immobilien connected Germany’s largest electric charging facility to the grid in the office tower’s underground car park.

The building’s underground car park has 130 charging points offering up to 22 kilowatts of power. That equates to just under 25% of all the interior parking spaces at TOWER185. Vehicles receive 100% green electricity.

The creation of e-mobility services is an important component of the sustainability concept that Deka Immobilien is implementing as part of the strategic redevelopment of TOWER185. Another element of this philosophy is the resource-saving and energy-efficient operation of the building.

Meanwhile, the charging infrastructure has also been established and expanded at other locations in collaboration with our strategic framework agreement partner. Over 500 charging points have been installed in total in partnership with Chargemaker.

Our expansion of fast charging solutions while you shop

The demands of electric vehicle drivers on the duration of the charging process depend heavily on the location of the charging points. The fact that users normally stay for a much shorter time in a retail property than in an office building puts somewhat different requirements on the expansion of charging infrastructure. For example, high-power chargers with a much greater output are necessary to ensure sufficient charging of the battery during the vehicle owner’s visit.

Partnership with EnBW

As part of a targeted expansion of the retail charging infrastructure, we have installed charging points at four retail parks owned by Deka Immobilien in Germany, in collaboration with Energie Baden-Württemberg AG (EnBW).

Each property, which is home to a large number of shops, has been equipped with at least four high-power chargers (HPCs) with a rate of up to 300 kilowatts. This capacity allows cars to be charged with enough energy for a range of around 400 kilometres within 20 minutes – an amount of time that fits perfectly with the length of a shopping trip. 

Energised shopping experience in Akropolis

At the Akropolis shopping centre in Kaunus, Lithuania, mobility and accessibility are a top priority. The focus is part of efforts to ensure ecological and economic sustainability. Public charging infrastructure has been sorely lacking in and around the city centre of Kaunas – until now, that is. Work to install the first 20 of a total of 40 planned charging stations began in May 2024. One of the main features of the new charging park is its size. In view of traffic flows, the popularity of the Akropolis Kaunas car park and the dynamic growth in the number of electric vehicles, however, the capacity of the charging stations is likely to be exhausted in the foreseeable future.

Planning for the second phase is already under way and envisages a further 20 charging stations. Once the second phase is completed in 2027, up to 80 electric cars will be able to be charged simultaneously at the Akropolis shopping centre, making it the largest charging park in the Baltic region. The total capacity of the stations already in operation is 1,500 kilowatts, with the majority of the capacity (1,200 kilowatts) provided by fast chargers. The facility is expected to reach a total capacity of over 3 megawatts in 2027.