Metro Group Asset Management (MGAM) has announced the purchase of a 6.3 hectare plot of land in Essen, Germany, for a new 24,000-m2 shopping centre. The vendor is the German industrial conglomerate ThyssenKrupp. Financial details were not disclosed and the project is conditional on approval by the supervisory board of ThyssenKrupp.

The new scheme is part of a vast project covering 230 hectares in the western part of Essen, between the city centre and the Altendorf neighborhood. The site, which previously housed the Krupp Belt steel factory, has remained largely vacant for the past 50 years.

MGAM intends to build a modern neighborhood centre with completion scheduled for 2013. Around half the space is already pre-let to Real Markt, which will relocate from a nearby location. The project will be developed in close cooperation with ThyssenKrupp Real Estate, with MGAM taking over development as well as the management and marketing of the centre.

'The urban development of the entire area with excellent access and proximity to the new ThyssenKrupp headquarters are ideal conditions to ensure that the shopping centre will develop itself as the preferred address for shopping in the area,' said Peter Wallenhorst, project manager at MGAM, in a statement.