In July 2020, a somewhat inconspicuous message ran over the ticker. The Hamburg project developer Becken announced that it had acquired an area of around 2,450 square meters (26,371 square feet) of the St. Matthew’s Church (Matthäuskirche) on the corner of the Friedrich-Ebert-Anlage and Hohenstaufenstrasse streets. The remaining part of the area, around 650 square meters (7,000 square feet), remains the property of the Protestant Regional Association (evangelischer Regionalverband).

This message would not be particularly newsworthy if the area of the St. Matthew’s Church had not been mentioned in the 2008 Frankfurt high-rise master plan as a new high-rise location: The planning rights on the site now allow a high-rise building to be constructed up to 130 meters (426 feet) in height.

The site plan of the high-rise masterplan shows the location of the future high-rise building on Hohenstaufenstrasse.

View location on Google Maps.

The Protestant Regional Association has also reached an agreement with Becken about the future use of the area. Becken will not only be allowed to build a new high-rise building on the property, but will also provide a new church for the Evangelical Hope Community (Evangelischer Hoffnungsgemeinde) at the same time. The church tower and listed elements of the existing buildings are to be retained and integrated into the new building.

The project developer Becken and the Protestant Regional Association want to jointly hold an architectural competition for the plot of land to be built on. The results of the competition and the usage concept are to be coordinated with the City of Frankfurt.

The Düsseldorf-based Gerch Group plans to build at least hundreds of apartments and a 44 story tall tower on the directly adjacent site of the former police headquarters. Tower 185 is on the opposite side of Hohenstaufenstrasse.