InvestourenTour Ruhr - a success story

Dirk Leutbecher: Experience the Ruhr region" is the slogan of the Investor Tour. And this slogan already contains a lot of what the investor tour is all about. After all, the sites presented on the tour could also be viewed on the Internet or discussed over the phone. However, the tour is much more than just a series of different facts about potential investment areas. As is so often the case, you "experience" the important things along the way and on site alongside the dry facts. Even on the bus, you have the opportunity to talk to the contact persons. And on site, you get a feel for what makes the location special. In my lectures on project development at universities, it's always important for me to tell students never to rely solely on Google Maps and colorful brochures. And if you've had a currywurst for lunch with the people responsible for the cities, it's much easier to pick up the phone later to talk about current or other projects. 

Dirk Leutbecher: You have to do something, I've often heard. And then you just had to do it. In many conversations, the idea of such an event was already there. But apparently no one had the energy, the drive or whatever you want to call it, to just do it. Nevertheless, the first participants still had to be convinced. But then word simply "got around" that there were interesting projects, ideas and people on the tour. At the beginning, however, it was not foreseeable that we would grow to five tours. It's great that it worked out. However, without the great teamwork with BMR, this would not have been possible on our own..  

Dirk Leutbecher: You would have to have the famous "crystal ball" for that. Especially as there is no such thing as a "market" in Germany. Firstly, not from a regional perspective, and secondly, not across the various asset classes. If you compare the office and logistics markets, for example, the current situation looks completely different. The office market is extremely tight. Home office and ESG are just two keywords here. And the Trianon building in Frankfurt illustrates how quickly millions in value can be destroyed. The logistics market, on the other hand, is described by some as the "Gallic village" of asset classes. Even if not everything shines here, the market outlook is much more positive. 

Dirk Leutbecher: Here I refer almost mantra-like to the different fluctuation ranges compared to the so-called A-cities. To put it bluntly, things don't go up as quickly in the Ruhr area, but they don't go down as quickly either. That may be boring, but it is also a hedge, especially for different investments in different regions.