Tilman, you received the ULI Young Leadership Award 2019 for your entrepreneurial success with Cube Real Estate. What is your recipe for success?

I would like to correct the question slightly. It’s not my success, it’s our success. Cube Real Estate has been around for almost seven years and in the meantime we have developed from a hidden champion among real estate project developers to a successful player in the real estate industry. This is the success of 50 wonderful personalities. At Cube Real Estate, we have managed to build a very special corporate culture and live it every day. That is what makes us successful. The keys to our project volume, which now totals 1 billion euros, are as simple as they are rare: Appreciation, cohesion and empathy lead to creativity, courage and commitment. For us, genuine corporate culture is not just a marketing phrase, but an everyday reality in a great community of personalities.

The focus of Cube Real Estate is on small-scale residential properties. Do you want to expand this area further or are you also looking at other asset classes in the real estate industry?

Our focus is particularly on small-scale living spaces that are worthy of the name. For us, this currently includes student housing, micro-living, senior living and shared apartments. There is a great need for this in Germany’s metropolitan areas. Of course, as a commercial enterprise, we are growth and profit-oriented. However, our main goal is to get involved where we can create a home for people in the truest sense of the word. A home is not just concrete and glass. That’s why we don’t just focus on the pure real estate project. We empathically define its role as a living environment for the users and the neighborhood. One example: We are currently developing a project consisting of micro-apartments, senior living, shared apartments and a daycare center in Cologne-Kalk. In other words, we are bringing living environments into enriching harmony. At this location in a major city, we are also ensuring that we counteract the undersupply of kindergarten places in the district. And: we would like to subsequently manage and operate this and other projects with our subsidiaries.

That sounds like an impressive culture of values. Is Tilman Gartmeier a do-gooder?

Tilman Gartmeier is an honest entrepreneur with responsibility. Without my team, without satisfied tenants and neighbors, Cube Real Estate would be just one of many project developers. For me and my team, taking responsibility means getting involved where our passion and expertise are needed. We are successful because we credibly live the balancing act between a focus on returns and responsibility for people and the environment. In 2020, Cube Real Estate will launch a charitable sustainability project that will attract attention throughout Germany. I think we are economically successful because we are a respected part of this society. We want to share part of our success with the common good. This is how Cube Real Estate defines entrepreneurial growth based on values and our positive business development proves us right.

Further information on the ULI Young Leadership Award can be found on the website. Insights into the projects of Cube Real Estate can be found here.