04.10.2021

Luther advises US wheel manufacturer Accuride on sale of factory premises

Stuttgart – Luther Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft has advised the US wheel manufacturer Accuride Corporation on the sale of the factory premises of the former Südrad Autoräder GmbH & Co. KG. The buyer is P3 Logistic Parks Deutschland, which is planning a new logistics building of around 39,000 square metres on the site near Stuttgart.

Background

The site is currently the largest plot of land in the Stuttgart area on which a new logistics building is being implemented. The planned logistics centre is being built on a brownfield site – in other words, on a site that has already been used for industrial purposes: Südrad has produced steel wheels here since 1955. In 2019, the Accuride Group acquired both the company and the approx. 60,000 sqm factory site in Ebersbach/Fils. In 2020, production was discontinued.

The decontamination of the site and the construction measures will take about 20 months, so the new logistics facility is expected to be ready for operation in January 2023. With the conversion of the old industrial site, the buyer also wants to make a contribution to reducing land consumption as part of the brownfield initiative of the newly founded German Brownfield Association.

For the seller, both the difficult land register situation with old rights from the Württemberg servitude book of 1850 and the almost 70 years of industrial use with associated contaminated sites posed a challenge. Luther's real estate law team was able to provide comprehensive advice on the drafting of the contract.

E&G Real Estate brokered the property to P3 and is marketing the property exclusively. In addition, the law firm FPS advised the developer on the purchase.

On behalf of Accuride:

Luther, real estate and construction law: Frank Gutsche (partner, lead), Paul Herter (associate)

Luther, environment, planning, regulation: Dr Stefan Kobes (Partner)