Verdion acquires Rhine-Ruhr site for €68 million urban logistics hub

Verdion has acquired a strategic industrial site in Germany’s Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region for the development of a €68 million urban logistics hub for its second European Logistics Fund, VELF 2.

The investor, developer and asset manager will now progress plans and building permitting for the speculative development of a new LiteHub in Gelsenkirchen, creating 37,675 sq m of urban logistics space in two self-contained blocks. New accommodation will range from 2,945 sq m to 20,098 sq m in up to 10 flexible units designed to meet EG40 and DGNB Gold standards.

The 6.67-ha former steel rope factory site was acquired from Bekaert, a world leader in steel wire transformation. It is located on the northern outskirts of Gelsenkirchen, close to the A42 motorway between Duisburg and Dortmund. Duisburg Inland Port and central Essen are less than 30 minutes away.

Moritz Heißenberg, Executive Director – Head of Germany, at Verdion, said: “This acquisition further strengthens our development pipeline in Germany, securing a strategically located site in the heart of one of Europe’s largest industrial and consumer markets. With excellent connectivity and access to a substantial customer base, we expect strong occupier demand from e-commerce, light manufacturing and last-mile distribution businesses, continuing our strategy of delivering flexible, modern space in prime urban locations with constrained supply.”

Oliver Kemper, Head of Investment – Germany at Verdion, said: “This acquisition is a strong fit with our investment strategy for VELF 2. We remain disciplined in targeting brownfield opportunities in established urban markets where we see clear potential to create value through redevelopment. Gelsenkirchen combines strong underlying demand fundamentals with the opportunity to transform an underutilised industrial site into modern, flexible logistics space.”

This is Verdion’s third acquisition for its VELF 2 fund in Germany in the last six months. In June 2026, it acquired a brownfield site in Munich to speculatively develop a €96 million LiteHub, In February, it secured a former production site in northern Cologne to create a €95 million urban logistics hub that will include both LiteHub and CoreHub facilities.

In June 2025, also for VELF 2, Verdion acquired brownfield site in Rastatt on the German-French border. It will now speculatively develop a €45 million asset set to complete in July 2027 and including provision for automotive occupiers within its flexible building design.

Verdion European Logistics Fund 2 (VELF 2) closed at the end of 2024 having raised more than €300 million of equity. It  leverages Verdion’s vertically integrated team and technical expertise to undertake refurbishment and development in key markets and continues to focus on the deployment of capital across Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden.

JLL brokered this transaction.