Built by and for one of Frankfurt’s preeminent developers, the penthouse called Skypearl was never slated for sale. Today, however, it stands as the priciest real estate in the city.
Doerfert Immobilien
One glance at the poolside view and you’re thinking Miami, aren’t you? A party town. The kind of place where you’d have a mirrored box containing a panoramic sauna at the end of your 12-meter-long rooftop pool—whose counter-current setting makes you feel like you’re swimming Olympian lengths in the sky.
Or if not Miami, then you’ve probably settled on Dubai for similar reasons. The skyscrapers, cloudless skies and sheer decadence of that kind of rooftop amenity all to yourself, in the middle of the metropolis. It all fits.
But hold on, it’s in Frankfurt? That pool is quite the money shot, but who would have thought a place like this would exist in Europe’s capital of… banking? Germany’s fifth largest city?
This cool jewel of a penthouse is called Skypearl. Even this five-bedroom penthouse’s name is straight out of Miami or Dubai, or a Bond film. It’s the most expensive property for sale in Frankfurt at €16.5 million ($18.1m), which works out at €50,000 per square meter (€4,655/$5,107 per square foot) for its 330 square meters (3,550 sq ft) of modern, internal space spread over the sixth and seventh floors of a former office building.
“It’s unique in Frankfurt and probably Germany,” explains Dane Doerfert of Doerfert Immobilien. “The developer has built more than 1,500 apartments in and around the city—and this, the very best one, he kept for himself.”
Perhaps Frankfurt isn’t such an odd location after all. Although its prime inner-city location in Westend is peppered with Wilhelminian-style houses built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Frankfurt has more skyscrapers than any other German city. So New York they nicknamed it ‘Mainhattan’ as a nod to the river Main that slices through its center. Germany’s urban planners usually bow to the diktat that nothing can be built higher than the church towers. But in Frankfurt, money talks.
Sightlines in the kitchen draw the eye toward the city skyline, while smoked oak floors, granite countertops and Gaggenau appliances appeal to the showiest of chefs.
Doerfert Immobilien
Skypearl has a panoramic view of a towering skyline befitting a business titan, in a building of just eight other wealthy owners. And because it’s the developer’s home, no expense has been spared on every last inch of its design.
Calm, neutral tones and natural woods and stone abound in the large, open-plan rooms. The kitchen, dining room and living area all link seamlessly, with a glass-sided fireplace serving as a partial partition to demarcate the space. And every window spans from floor to ceiling, turning cool into a warm glow as the day lights up.
It’s like living in an art gallery where the art is the 360-degree view, whether you’re appreciating it from within or basking on the large terrace that runs along the length of the property.
The beauty, too, is that few would even know that Skypearl exists. From the street there is little to hint that Frankfurt’s most opulent penthouse enjoys a lofty position above.
Anchored by the European Central Bank, the Deutsche Bundesbank and the German Stock Exchange, Frankfurt serves as continental Europe’s foremost financial stronghold—imagine the deals that could be sealed around this table.
Doerfert Immobilien
So who might live in Skypearl? Someone who wants five-star hotel-style living without having to share. Those seeking lock-up-and-leave luxury, plug-and-play perfection. Or simply a buyer who will enjoy it as their full-time home, and grin as they wake each morning at the feeling of having done quite well in life.
There’s no shortage of wealth moving to Frankfurt, either, with the German city capitalizing on London’s tarnished reputation as a money-making mecca since Brexit. In the last nine years, some 62 banks and other financial institutions have moved their HQs and hundreds of staff to Frankfurt.
The city does face stiff competition from Paris, which has a similar banking scene but arguably a deeper cultural and lifestyle package, particularly for relocating families. But Doerfert doesn’t see Skypearl as a family home—more the perfect pad for a wealthy bachelor, or a semi-retired couple wanting the convenience this property and its city-center location offers.
Zoom in and you could be in Miami, Dubai, Singapore. Skypearl’s privileged position in Europe’s financial center is unique in the city, and possibly in all of Germany.
Doerfert Immobilien
“It could attract an international banker coming from the U.S., Dubai or Singapore and wanting a base in the city that they visit every couple of weeks. Or someone in the luxury jewellery industry who travels regularly between New York, Frankfurt and Antwerp,” he posits.
The Four—a quartet of 30-story skyscrapers in downtown Frankfurt, with an average price of €35,000 per square meter (€3,258/$3,585 per sq ft)—may pique interest among the financial fraternity who want to live close to work. But what bankers don’t want, says Doerfert, is to work in a tower and live in one too. “At Skypearl, you have the benefits of your own large private terraces, a pool to yourself and the high security of a small building where only its handful of residents can access the underground parking and lifts.”
Situated within the zone popularly referred to as the Deutsche Bank triangle, the Four mixed-use skyscraper venture wrapped construction earlier this year.
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Skypearl also comes with rarity value, he adds. “It’s purely because of the owner’s decades of experience as a developer in Frankfurt that he was able to build something like this. It’s unlikely anything similar will be built again.”
This is the first time it has been for sale too. “And once it sells, it’s unlikely to come back on the market for a long time,” says Doerfert. Those who know Europe’s banking capital well would put their money on that.
Doerfert Immobilien is a member of Forbes Global Properties, an invitation-only network of top-tier brokerages worldwide and the exclusive real estate partner of Forbes.
