The founding era
Carefree building and concentrating on the actual core business - that was what mail order pioneer Werner Otto (1909-2011) always wanted when he set up Otto-Versand in the 1950s and 1960s. However, the reality was different. Almost every one of his construction projects realized with external service providers was associated with trouble. So Werner Otto made a virtue of necessity and founded his own real estate company in 1965 - ECE. With this company, Otto developed the first classic shopping centers for the German market, including in Nuremberg, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Cologne, Bremen, Leonberg and Essen.

Consolidation and diversification
Just in time for the 1973 oil crisis, Werner Otto stopped the expansion of the centers. The pause in growth was used for comprehensive consolidation. The aim was to secure and optimize the existing centers. In 1974, Dr. Heinrich Kraft took over this task as Chairman of the ECE Management Board. Kraft completely reorganized the team and expanded our commitment to office and logistics properties. We took advantage of the crisis to take over and complete high-rise developments in Frankfurt am Main that had run into difficulties.

New inner-city centers
At the beginning of the 1980s, we turned our focus back to the development and realization of shopping centers. While the first centers were primarily built in district centers, we now began developing central inner-city shopping centers - for example in Koblenz, Neunkirchen and Hamm. With the consistent development of inner-city retail locations, we took on a pioneering role in the shopping center market.

Expansion in the new federal states and Berlin
German reunification also opened up new prospects for ECE. While the first developers built shopping centers on greenfield sites in the new federal states shortly after the fall of the Wall, we pursued a sustainable strategy with well thought-out location concepts. These included the Potsdamer Platz Arkaden in Berlin (now The Playce), the Promenaden at Leipzig Central Station and the Altmarkt-Galerie in Dresden.

Internationalization
In 2000, Alexander Otto, son of company founder Werner Otto, took over as Chairman of the ECE Management Board. He aligned the company internationally and developed ECE into the European shopping center market leader. Thanks to the real estate sister company Park Property in North America and the Otto family's holdings in real estate companies in North and South America, we also have excellent relationships overseas.

Success in all asset classes
The growing activities in other asset classes were bundled in 2006 in the new management division "Office, Traffic, Industries" (now "Work & Live"). The portfolio includes large properties such as corporate headquarters, office buildings, industrial buildings, logistics centers, hotels and entire city districts.

First sustainability report
The sustainable use of resources has always been part of our corporate strategy - we have regularly published a sustainability report since 2008.

Start in the hotel business
We entered another asset class with the development of hotel projects in Dresden and at Berlin's new BER airport. We are now the third-largest hotel developer in Germany. The Otto family is also active in this area with its own hotel real estate portfolio and a 25 percent stake in the lean-luxury hotel operator Ruby Hotels.

Fund platform
The new fund management company ECE Real Estate Partners successfully launched its first shopping center fund in 2011. Its subsidiary in Luxembourg has been a licensed Alternative Investment Fund Manager (AIFM) since 2014. ECE Real Estate Partners now manages real estate worth ten billion euros(assets under management).

Digitalization
We are taking advantage of the opportunities offered by the digital world in all areas: for example, we were the first shopping center operator to develop an online search function for the products available in the center with the "Digital Mall". As part of our digital strategy, we are constantly working on optimizing both B2B and B2C products and processes in order to meet the increasing demands of our business partners

Hotel fund platform
Our fund management company ECE Real Estate Partners expanded its activities and launched its first hotel fund, the "ECE European Lodging Recovery Fund". The launch property is the "Bonvecchiati" building ensemble in the historic center of Venice.

ECE becomes the ECE Group
On 1 January 2021, we repositioned ourselves as an integrated group in the real estate and investment business. The aim was to create independent market companies (ECE Marketplaces, ECE Work & Live, ECE Real Estate Partners) with clear responsibilities in order to be able to respond more quickly to requirements and opportunities in the various markets in future. 2022 saw the addition of ECE Living as a further specialized company. As the substructure, ECE Group Services provides all services in our Group and continues to drive digitalization forward.

New residential fund platform
The new specialized Group company ECE Living launched its first European residential real estate fund, the "ECE Better Living Europe Fund". The focus is on modern build-to-rent properties in European growth cities, including Leeds, Manchester and Copenhagen.

60 years of ECE
Adaptability has always been our trademark: Werner Otto's guiding principle was "panta rhei" - everything flows. In the 60 years of our existence, we have mastered various crises and challenges - from the oil crisis and the financial crisis to online competition and the coronavirus pandemic. We will therefore continue to change in the future and continue our success story.