Tall & Urban News

There will soon be a new skyscraper in Berlin, intended to create a new “gate to Berlin.” If completed, the Estrel Tower could become the tallest in the German capital, with its groundbreaking scheduled for fall 2020.

The existing Estrel Hotel at the Neukölln Shipping Channel (“Neuköllner Schifffahrtskanal”) is one of Germany’s largest and most popular. Being the biggest and having the highest turnover of them all is not enough anymore though as it aims to become the city’s tallest building by 2025 at 175 meters.

The 368-meter Berliner Fernsehturm, the current tallest tower in Berlin, celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2019. The city also has eight chimneys for heating stations and broadcasting antennas which will still be higher than the Estrel Tower, once it is completed.

The tower will be substantially higher than the city’s current tallest building, the Park Inn Berlin Alexanderplatz, which stands at 125 meters.

One aspect that delayed construction of the tower was the construction of the Autobahn A100 in the same area. The new Autobahn will give the Estrel Tower access to the new Berlin Brandenburg Airport, which will open on 31 October 2020.

As the largest hotel in the country, the existing Estrel offers 1,125 rooms. In their new tower, they will have more than 2,000 rooms across 46 floors.

The existing hotel will continue operating as the new tower is under construction. The abandoned train tracks and bridge between the old building and the new tower site were purchased to provide a direct connection between the two.

For more on this story, go to The Berlin Spectator.