How a Small German Lender Helped Fuel a Giant Property Bubble
Corestate financed many projects that ended up on Adler’s books, drawing investors with the prospect of double-digit returns. Now many of them face possible steep losses.
The stalled redevelopment of the ‘Q’ project in Nuremberg, bought by Corestate Capital for a client and developed by Gerchgroup, which has filed for insolvency.
Photographer: Ben Kilb/BloombergNext to Berlin’s airport south of the German capital lies one of the few properties that Cevdet Caner and Guenther Walcher have been fighting to keep after losing much of their real estate empire.
Known as Project Walter, the development was acquired with financing from Corestate Capital Holding SA, a real estate lender in which Walcher was a top shareholder. Corestate arranged the debt for the purchase, using money from a fund that one of its subsidiaries advised — even though the fund was contending with redemptions.