ADELGADE 5-7

Copenhagen

NORDIC VENTURE PARTNER

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YOO HOLDINGS LTD

DeVELOPMENT CASE

When Starck and Nordic Venture Partner first crossed paths, it was always likely to be a meeting of minds.

The building that brought them together was - perhaps - an unlikely one. A five storey office block taking up a third of a street in the Gothersgade quarter of Copenhagen. Nordic Venture Partner had purchased it based on a gut feeling that it could be transformed into something special. Starck agreed. It was at that point that the formal partnership between

Nordic Venture Partner and Yoo Denmark was forged. Yoo itself is the result of an inspired collaboration between Philippe Starck, the man who changed the way we look at everything from luxury bathrooms to lemon squeezers, and John Hitchcox, co-founder of the legendary Manhattan Loft Corporation. Together, they set out to prove a simple idea: that innovative design, branding and marketing could transform the value of properties. It was an idea that resonated strongly with Nordic Venture Partner.

For Yoo and Nordic Venture Partner, this overlooked building represented a chance to demonstrate their shared philosophy in action. A philosophy aimed at taking something ordinary and turning it into something extraordinary.

“From an architect’s point of view, I want to see a series of really cracking buildings. That’s what you look for in a developer. A good track record and a creative outlook. Some companies claim to be creative, bold and interesting, but they don’t really mean it. Nordic Venture Partner is different. It’s not a formulaic approach, but it definitely works.”

- David Shelley Architect, Yoo London

The project Nordic Venture Partner brought to life with Yoo is Yoo Denmark situated at Adelgade 5–7 in the Copenhagen. The building, a former office/factory building from 1963, had been totally renovated, leaving only the exterior walls and the horizontal divisions.

Yoo Denmark consists of 60 apartments and 6 penthouses, all with Philippe Starck designed interiors, individually specified and coordinated by Yoo. Inside the floor spaces are open plan and fluid, ripe for manipulation. Floor to ceiling windows, private balconies, underground parking and a huge communal roof terrace, which is one of the largest private gardens in Copenhagen. On top of this the location of Yoo Denmark is on the pinpoint axis of everything that’s fascinating and fabulous in Copenhagen.

“Within a few days of putting the property on the market, we’ve had almost 700 people registering their interest - and we are now beginning one-to-one consultations. This is a very design-literate city, so there is a huge appeal in being able to say you live in an apartment designed by Philippe Starck. It will undoubtedly generate prices never seen in Copenhagen before.”

- Kenneth Kapsch, Siesbye Kapsch

All of the commercial activities have arisen as a direct result of the Nordic Venture Partner philosophy, which is about finding imaginative uses for existing spaces - and then creating the right vehicle to make it happen.

The Yoo Adelgade project initially aimed at creating 60+ modern designer homes of high international standard. The media originally described the Yoo project as a completely unique project for Copenhagen. The interior design and materials would be of a quality rarely found elsewhere, and if the buyers of the individual units needed inspiration, Philippe Starck would be available – at first with the five fully furnished and fitted show units. The four design themes of the show units, classic, nature, culture, and minimal illustrate the many design options available. There were to be no standard solutions, simply a constant search for the ultimate design.

However, during the prolonged time to finalise the planning permits, CenterPlan saw a shift in attractiveness from the residential market to the commercial market – with office and hotel vacancies in the city of Copenhagen at all time lows – and condominium prices down 10-15%. Consequently, the build-able area of 6,000 m2 could now more productively be developed into alternative uses – or mixed use, e.g., still high end apartments (up 60+) and/or office hotel (up to 300 workstations) and/or (up to 100 smaller) serviced apartments.

YOO AT WORK

Langebrogade 5
Copenhagen

NORDIC VENTURE PARTNER

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YOO HOLDINGS LTD

DEVELOPMENT CASE

This five-story office building first built in 1957 and situated in Christianshavn, close to the harbor.

As the previous headquarters for “Finansforbundet”, it houses a 40-feet tall glass mosaic by Danish artist Preben Hornung and a range of Arne Jacobsen designed interiors.

Properties were converting the building into an office-hotel capable of handling up to 450 people in designer-style settings. The facility is a complete office with all relevant services offered to small and middle-sized tenants seeking flexibility on their leases.

The design team from Yoo developed the cutting edge designs inspired by the view that designs for commercial spaces increasingly lean on trends in residential designs, in a time where the borders between home and work continue to blur.

The launch was rather timely with vacancy rates for commercial spaces in Copenhagen at an all-time low of three to four percent.

Commerce poised to manage this facility as the first of several office hotels, and has been offered the opportunity to use the name of Yoo at work, leaning heavily on the extensive value of the Yoo (Philippe Starck) brand.

STORY BEHIND CENTREPLAN & YOO HOLDINGS LTD

In 2005, CenterPlan entered as seed investor £18m, in Yoo Holdings Ltd, consequently acquired 25% of the capital in the company with the proceeds remaining in the company to secure the continued expansion.

Through an on-going consulting agreement and board representation, CenterPlan and by extension Carsten Leveau then played an active role in developing the core design business. During the first twelve months of the involvement, the company sold more projects, increased the pipeline, increased the global PR-value, signed Jade Jagger as a new designer, formalized Yoo Capital and Yoo Interiors, and formalized the board workings with quarterly meetings and professional reporting. CenterPlan has been pivotal to the process of raising a GBP 30 million real estate fund for co-investments in Yoo projects around the world.