Cologne-based DERECO, a multi-family office for real estate assets with a focus on entrepreneur families, is facing the growing need for project development finance by building up its team resources.

Guido Schürken (39 years) is going to coordinate and extend DERECO’s “real estate private equity” activities. He joined DERECO at the beginning of the year. Schürken, who has a degree in business and administration with a special focus on real estate, is a publicly recognised expert with over ten years of experience in investment management and real estate development. In the field of investment, he has been in charge of clients investing in housing, commercial and operator properties at a national and international level. One of the projects he coordinated on his last job was the “le flair” neighbourhood development in central Dusseldorf for Hochtief Projektentwicklung GmbH.

His former employers include Hochtief Projektentwicklung GmbH (HTP Rhein-Ruhr), Christie + Co. London and Vivawest Wohnen GmbH in Gelsenkirchen.

Some years ago, the DERECO family office identified the increasingly frequent financing gap for commercial project developments as an opportunity for its clients and started operating in the private equity sector. DERECO is set to identify and finance suitable development projects for its clients in coming years with new capital commitments amounting to approx. €50m. The plan is to invest the agreed sums of venture capital in various projects in a rolling scheme over the next few years. Equity requirements for selected projects can be covered by up to 100%. The private equity pool intends to make between EUR 5m to EUR 20m available per project. In 2015 alone, DERECO was involved in project developments to the tune of around EUR 300m.