Story Detail
Celebrating solid grounds – a 25-year success story
Swiss Prime Site has gone on a remarkable journey since it was founded on 11 May 1999. Today, we are one of the most significant players in the real estate industry, with a commitment that extends well beyond simply creating buildings – because we focus on the people who live, work and spend their leisure time in them.
Looking back
The inauguration of Messeturm Basel at the start of the 2000s was an early example of our visionary thinking and a signpost for the future. Almost ten years later, we once again showed what a forward-thinking developer can do with the opening of Prime Tower, another architectural and urban development flagship project. The iconic tower has greatly influenced the development of Zurich-West and is still one of the tallest buildings in Switzerland, a dominant presence in the skyline of Zurich and beyond.
Our company history has seen a wealth of key strategic acquisitions and developments. They include the acquisition of Maag Holding (2005), which led to the development of the Maag site. The purchase of the Jelmoli portfolio in 2009 added numerous attractive properties to our investment portfolio, which doubled in value to around CHF 8 billion.
The ensuing years were marked by growth both organic and inorganic, and we continuously added to our company portfolio. In 2012, the area of facility management of our own properties was expanded with the acquisition of real estate service provider Wincasa. With the acquisition of Tertianum, the Swiss specialist for assisted accommodation, we also added the sector of «senior living» to our portfolio. Diversification was the right approach at that time, but the world has changed since then. Today, the key is to refine the corporate profile.
So over recent years, we have decided on a forward-looking focus for our corporate strategy, and this led us to place our group companies Wincasa and Tertianum in new hands. This step enables us to concentrate on our core competencies, while we continue to maintain our established partnerships with both these companies. Wincasa remains our property management partner and Tertianum one of our largest tenants. We are grateful for the valuable partnerships that we have built up with our customers and partners over the years, and look forward to further strengthening these relationships in our new strategic direction.
Today, our business model is based on two areas: Real Estate and Asset Management.
«Our scale gives us a decisive advantage in extensively leveraging our experience and expertise. Our size means we can drive innovation in construction and building operations, develop large sites and offer a wide range of products and solutions for a sustainable real estate industry.»
René Zahnd, CEO of Swiss Prime Site
Portfolio and development
The Real Estate business area, which is consolidated into Swiss Prime Site Immobilien, invests in, develops and leases commercial properties, chiefly in prime locations in the major Swiss economic centres of Zurich, Geneva, Basel and Berne. We create sustainable added value for our stakeholders and investors through significant development projects tailored to their markets. This ensures our portfolio is up to date at all times, with particularly high building quality.
Along with the Prime Tower site in Zurich, other major development projects over which we assumed ownership include the YOND and JED buildings in Zurich, Alto Pont-Rouge in Geneva and complex redevelopment projects like Schönburg in Berne and, starting in 2025, the Jelmoli building in Zurich. The transformation of the property on Müllerstrasse, Zurich is considered a pioneering project for the circular economy, showing how important it is to consider the entire property life cycle and prepare for the real estate industry of the future with innovative approaches.
Asset Management
With impressive strategic foresight, Swiss Prime Site Solutions was established in 2017 with the launch of the Asset Management business area. This makes an ideal complement to the established Real Estate business area.
In Asset Management, we specialise in the asset management of third-party properties, and we offer a broad spectrum of investment vehicles. Through our wide range of products and services, we cater to various investor groups and their preferences. The primary external sources of capital are institutional investors and pension funds. The Asset Management business area generates profitable growth through fee-based revenues, without investment of our own capital. Within this business area, we provide comprehensive real estate services and cover the entire real estate life cycle including portfolio management, purchasing, development and construction management, rental, property management and sales.
Since 2021, Swiss Prime Site Solutions has been the proud bearer of a FINMA fund management licence, which further underscores our expertise and reliability within the industry. Recent years have also been marked by groundbreaking changes. In 2021, we acquired the Akara Group, followed by the real estate segment of the Fundamenta Group Switzerland and Germany in 2024. Through these strategic acquisitions, we succeeded in expanding our portfolio, further enhancing our expertise and consolidating our leading position in the real estate industry.
«Our broad-based expertise in financing real estate and our experience over the last 25 years form the foundation for a deep understanding of market requirements and allow us to identify and influence trends early on.»
Marcel Kucher, CFO of Swiss Prime Site
We create sustainable living spaces
Our real estate projects are not only financially successful; they also set standards in the ESG space. This underscores our commitment to a sustainable future and demonstrates our conviction that long-term economic success is linked to precisely these qualities. Accordingly, we have been working on sustainable certification of our real estate portfolio for some time now. By the close of 2023, we had already certified around 95% of all space, and in our anniversary year we aim to reach the full 100%.
Swiss Prime Site is assessed by the world’s leading independent ratings providers. They include GRESB, which measures and evaluates the sustainability performance of real estate companies. Our outstanding results in this assessment put us in the top bracket of companies worldwide.
Financing strategy
Our two strategic pillars provide us with solid financing along with the security and vision we need for future projects. Real estate is a capital-intensive business, so strong levels of financing are essential for our operational activities. Our focus here is on achieving a high degree of flexibility, minimising risks and optimising costs, while also focusing on sustainability. We aim to offer our investors attractive investment solutions, and payment of ongoing dividends is one way we achieve this.
Outlook
We are proud of our success to date. At the same time, we are looking forward to continuing to create concrete added value for our stakeholders. Our focus on the two pillars of Real Estate and Asset Management gives us a solid orientation for the future, and we are looking to the coming years with optimism. We are focused on fully exploiting the potential in our own portfolio and in the asset management space, building on the solid foundation we have established over the last 25 years.
«We look back on our achievements with pride, and we are excited to see what our qualitative growth path brings next. It is our agility and our determination to create added value for our clients on a continuous basis that make us stand out.»
Anastasius Tschopp, CEO of Swiss Prime Site Solutions
