While his company was already in crisis, investor René Benko had a 1,000 square meter apartment expanded in Berlin. Photos from the loft show his penchant for pomp: gold, marble and a huge dining table.
René Benko’s rise to real estate tycoon could be traced over the years as he expanded his Signa Group in Berlin’s City-West. First he bought the KaDeWe on Tauentzienplatz, as well as a Karstadt branch on Ku’damm – and then in 2017 the Upper West, an almost 120 meter high office tower between the Memorial Church and Zoo Station. The Austrian investor proudly called the tower on Breitscheidplatz his “cathedral,” which Signa actually only wanted to move into as a tenant. Instead, Benko bought the building from the US entrepreneur Aby Rosen. At the time, it was Germany’s largest real estate deal of the year.
Source: Stern
