At a joint press conference today, Opel and an investment consortium led by the managing directors of the Bauwert Property Group, Dr. Jürgen Leibfried and Patrick Reich, announced the sale of a large part of the historic Opel plant in Rüsselsheim’s city center. After construction of the new plant – one of the most advanced car production facilities in the world – on the western side of the city, space in this conveniently situated location became vacant.

The consortium takes over large parts of the plant between the railway tracks, Marktstraße and Weisenauer Straße, as well as a building complex south of the railway tracks. The theme of the automobile is to play a major role in the building project, named “Opel Forum”. Opel will display its extensive automobile collection in the “Opel Brand and Classic Car World” and also rent a considerable amount of office space. Bauwert plans to build a shopping mall, hotel, restaurants and leisure facilities. In addition, parts of the complex will house private collections of historic automobiles and motorcycles, and there will be a market place for classic cars.

“During our search for an investor, our main priority was to find possible concepts and ideas that would balance a broad variety of uses with the interests of the city. Opel co-developed the concept and in my view has done everything to ensure a strong and lasting upvaluation of the city center,” said Opel Management Board Member Norbert Küpper during the press conference. “We’re especially happy that we’ll finally have a suitable facility for our historic vehicles with the planned Brand and Classic Car World,” he continued.

Opel has a collection of over 300 classic cars − the oldest dating from 1899 − including production vehicles, racing cars, design studies, prototypes and motorcycles. The Brand and Classic Car World exhibits will be made up of vehicles from this collection.

The managing directors of Bauwert Property Group, one of Germany’s leading realty project developers, are responsible for the project’s development and implementation. Jones Lang LaSalle was exclusive real estate consultant.

The planned Opel Forum incorporates many of the recommendations renowned Professors Reinhard Hujer and Bert Rürup made in their “Rüsselsheim 2020” study in fall 2006. Both Opel and the city of Rüsselsheim commissioned the study, whose key recommendation was to clearly position Rüsselsheim as a “car city”. The study also put forward that the city center should be upvalued to reverse the considerable flow of purchasing power to the surrounding towns and cities. It went on to say that conversion of the historic plant, the oldest part of which dates back to 1911, is an important step in the right direction.