ECE took advantage of a pause in growth in the shopping center sector brought about by the oil crisis of 1973/74 to carry out a comprehensive consolidation. At the same time, we branched out into office and logistics real estate. During the crisis, for example, the company took on unfinished high-rise developments in Frankfurt am Main and successfully completed them. Among the first projects in the logistics sector were goods distribution centers for OTTO, Hermes, Witt Weiden, Schwab, and Heine Versand.

In a European pilot project for station revitalization, ECE transformed Leipzig Central Station into a modern transport hub with a commercial and service center in 1997. Further railway stations followed in Cologne, Hannover, and Vienna. With our first hotel project (in Dresden in 2009) and residential developments (“Mitte Altona” in Hamburg in 2010), ECE embraced further asset classes. Back in 2006, the company had already brought together its non-shopping-center activities in the newly created Office, Traffic, and Industries management division, from which ECE Work & Live ultimately emerged as a separate company in 2021.