Identifying development opportunities – maximizing value for all stakeholders
Real Estate development.
Strategic advisory.
Urban and architectural design.
Profile
About Achilles+Partners
Achilles + Partners (in Germany Achilles Real Estate Development GmbH) is an international, multidisciplinary team of experienced specialists in real estate investment and development, urban planning, and architecture. We serve as strategic advisors, project planners, and development managers for select private and institutional investors.
Our expertise comprises conceptualizing, planning, and initiating large-scale, mixed-use urban development projects. We have also pioneered some innovative niche products in the residential and commercial sectors. Although currently based in Germany, our operations extend to several international markets, including Brazil and the United Arab Emirates.
Over the years, we have assisted numerous investors, landowners, and development partners in identifying and preparing promising development opportunities. Our services include crafting integrated development plans, elaborating creative design solutions, securing necessary permits, and managing critical stages of complex delivery processes. These efforts have significantly increased the value of their properties and mitigated development risks.
We maintain exceptionally high standards for our projects and business practices. With a commitment to seriousness, integrity, and passionate creativity, we aim to deliver relevant, measurable, and long-lasting value for all stakeholders.
Capabilities - Activities
We are developers, designers, and strategy consultants. We assess opportunities and risks from multiple perspectives, based on decades of real-life, hands-on experience. We provide practical, actionable advice and management support for the implementation processes. Our multidisciplinary, integrated capabilities enable us to assist clients and partners at various stages of the value-adding chain. We act as consultants and executive owner representatives, aligning interests and sharing risks to achieve optimal outcomes.
Development
Design
Advisory
Development
Design
Advisory
Global perspective,
international experience
and relationships
We have worked as real estate developers, strategy consultants and planners in different international markets, for and in partnerships with some of the sector’s leading organizations. This allowed us to build a network of close relationships with many international private and institutional investors, operators and best-in-class specialist consultants. The countries we have worked in include: Germany, Brazil, Russia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Oman.
Business development
+ product development
= an integrated approach
Strategic advisory services
From multi-disciplinary and international perspectives
- Business model and competitive positioning
- Organizational development
- Workflow optimization
- Growth, restructuring, turn-around management
- Corporate governance
- Capability- building and strategy application support.
- Portfolio analysis/ project due diligence
- Market studies, highest and best use analysis
- Feasibility studies
- Project investment memoranda for submission to investors and banks
- Economic development and demand creation strategies
- Architectural and urban design services (phases 1-4 HOAI)
- Integrated Development Plans (combined business, product and process plans)
- Peer reviews/ juries
- Project repositioning/ work-outs.
- Opportunity sourcing and evaluation
- Market entry strategies
- Operational platforms, local partners
- Acquisitions/ Dispositions
- Investor prospecting, placement and investment structuring
- Ongoing investment monitoring, reporting and owner representation.
Development management and design services
Guiding the Process through „Integrated Development Plans“
- Owner representation
- Investment analysis, feasibility studies, value appraisals
- Project conceptualization, business plans
- Elaboration of Integrated Development Plans
- Own test designs and/or design management
- Architectural and urban design services (phases 1-4 HOAI)
- Selection, briefing and guidance of technical and commercial specialist consultants
- Management of project permitting process
- Support of owner with fund raising and investment structuring. Preparation of investment memoranda
- Support of procurement, tender and award of construction work
- Marketing and sales management and/or own sales services
Projects
Integrated development concepts, master planning, design studies, project realizations
We have worked in different capacities – as advisors, as development managers, as designers, often in combination – on a broad spectrum of project types. Most of our projects were large-scale, mixed-use urban developments, including entire new cities or city districts and business clusters.
Our comprehensive and in-depth knowledge of the entire real estate value chain, our decades of experiences “having sat on different sides of the table” enables us to take an integrated strategic approach from the outset. It allows us to think and plan holistically, to anticipate future requirements and to consider long-term effects right from the start.
We are design-driven, believe in the value of good design, its profound and long-lasting impact on people, their well-being, creativity and productivity, as well as on natural environments and our limited resources. The early concept-and-design phases, on which we concentrate particularly, is where the most project value can be gained (or lost).
In a pro-active and responsible forward- looking way we initiate, plan and guide the development process as advisor or partner, always with an owner’s perspective, focusing on tangible, measurable results for all stakeholders.
Riverfront Towers Frankfurt East, 2019
A new waterfront city in the South of Brazil – Solar Plan
Riverfront Towers Frankfurt East II, 2019
Diagnostic Center W
DesignPort
Urban Block Studies
Modular housing Dubai
Office complex Macaé, Brazil
Modular student housing, 2018
Frames residential blocks, Rio de Janeiro
Micro Living
Marina Towers Florianópolis, 2018
Riverfront district Frankfurt West, 2021
Guesthouse / Micro Living F
Innovation Cluster
Urban Farming
Modular Malls, United Arab Emirates, 2016
Shopping Mall
Hybrid office tower with double-skin façade
Urban Block Infill
RP Tower
Quartier N
Market Hall Extension Frankfurt, 2021
Boxkai Frankfurt, 2021
Food industry cluster in Dubai
Mixed-use district in Macaé, Brazil, Phase 1
Affordable housing in Brasil with prefabricated volumetric modules
Design Hotel, Rio de Janeiro
Waterfront Lofts 2002
Phase 0
Some of the larger consulting and development projects we are working on allow us to start on a blank canvas, to define the project vision and elaborate integrated economic and urban development concepts. We conduct our own, independent and in-depth market studies as well as technical and legal due diligence to define highest-and-best use options for the land and maximum economic impact of the proposed business opportunities. We identify all relevant stakeholders and decision makers, their expectations and agendas to build consensual strategies and map out efficient approval procedures.
We know that the more professional, diligent and responsible the early-stage development tasks are conducted, the more solid the basis for long-term successful projects will be – in terms of economic, social and ecological sustainability.
Sustainability
Our understanding of sustainable urban development and architectural design focuses on the consistent application of simple, timeless principles that have proven valid throughout our cultural history – not on ideological transformation manifests or short-lived fashion trends. Urban structures are complex and dynamic systems, but long-term experiences with urban life provides reliable orientation for a pragmatic reconciliation of interests, justifies „common sense“. Concepts which we develop aim for solid, long-lasting structures that provide attractive frameworks for different users and changing uses, form strong identities and release positive energy. We strive to exploit the great potential of „passive sustainable planning strategies“ and „intelligent low-tech“ to add innovative high-tech layers in a more targeted and efficient manner. This approach applies to standard real estate products as well as to ambitious iconic landmarks.
Our planned and built environments shape our inner worlds – our well-being, our thinking, creativity and productivity. The experience of this interaction – „First we shape our buildings, thereafter they shape us“ – creates huge responsibility for investors, planners and developers. A responsibility that we are aware of and take very seriously.
Team
All members of the core team contribute decades of international professional experience. All had worked for many years for sector leading companies in senior and senior executive positions before joining A+P on projects in the Middle East, Brazil and Germany. We often work in strategic partnerships and complement our project teams with trusted specialist consultants from our international network.
Founder / Managing Partner
Heiko Achilles is the founder and managing partner of the company, with nearly 30 years of international experience as a real estate developer and consultant. He specializes in strategic planning and development management, bringing a wealth of expertise across diverse global markets. His extensive, multidisciplinary background has been instrumental in shaping successful projects and guiding the company’s growth. He holds a master’s degree in architecture and urban planning (Mag.Arch/ Dipl.-Ing.) from the University of Applied Arts Vienna, and a master’s degree in urban design with a focus on real estate development (MAUD) from Harvard University. Throughout his career, Heiko has held senior management and senior executive roles at some of the world’s leading real estate investors and developers, including Tishman Speyer, Dubai Holding, and Hines. Over his 20-year tenure with these organizations, he spearheaded business and product planning, and following implementation management for several large-scale, mixed-use urban developments and iconic landmark projects. His work spans across Germany, the Middle East, Brazil, and Russia, with a focus on innovative and sustainable product concepts and large-scale urban developments. Heiko has also served on advisory and supervisory boards for prominent real estate investment and development firms, including Kortros in Russia. A licensed architect and urban planner, he is registered with the Chamber of Architects in Hessen, Germany. Heiko is fluent in German, English, and Portuguese.
Henrique Houayek holds a Ph.D. in planning, design and the built environment from Clemson University, USA. He has almost 20 years of professional experience as architect and project manager in Brazil, the US and Portugal. He has worked as a project manager for AECOM, responsible for multiple projects for the Rio 2016 Olympics, as well as for his own practice. He furthermore worked as a professor of architecture for Clemson University for over 10 years, in the USA and Italy. Henrique Houayek is a licensed architect, registered in Brazil. Languages: Portuguese, English, Spanish, Italian.
Claus Peter Rees has 25+ years of experience as advisor and facilitator for strategic investment and economic development in key growth markets – with a focus on real estate, infrastructure and privateequity. His work experience includes Europe, the Middle East, Brazil, China and South East Asia. He heldsenior management and executive leadership positions with organizations such as Al Qudra Holding (Abu Dhabi), Dubai Holding, Federation of German Industries (BDI), Expo 2000 Hannover. His specialties include strategic portfolio management and sustainable cluster development with healthcare and education as core components. Claus Peter Rees holds a MA in International Management and BA in Socio-Economic Studies (Universität Konstanz) with further specialization in Economics and Law (SciencesPo, Paris, Freie Universität Berlin). He is fluent in German, English, French, and Portuguese.
Publications
Stadtentwicklung mit einem Developer Mindset – Innovation, Wachstum und Wettbewerbs-fähigkeit in kritischen Zeiten
Stadtentwicklung mit einem Developer Mindset – Innovation, Wachstum und Wettbewerbsfähigkeit in kritischen Zeiten
In an era marked by profound global challenges and technological disruptions, cities have become focal points of transformation—serving as arenas of opportunity, as urban laboratories. This book provides a practice-oriented guide to navigating the complex interrelations between economic development and urban planning. The author offers critical analyses of current debates and popular narratives and introduces effective strategies aimed at enhancing both competitiveness and sustainability. The book focuses on strategic planning, supportive structures and processes, and the essential, success-defining mindset. The current situation in Germany is compared with international examples, seeking successful and transferable solutions. This book is aimed at professionals and decision-makers from all disciplines of urban development, as well as anyone interested in the future of cities.
Author: Heiko Achilles
260 pages
Language: German (as e-book with English summaries)
Publisher: Springer
Date: Oct/Nov 2024
Table of Contents
Introduction/Excerpt:
The cards are currently being reshuffled – the opportunities, power and influence of the players for the next phases of our future are being redefined. We can no longer rely on old structures and certainties. The simultaneous and complex interactions of new global challenges, disruptive technological innovations, demographic changes, and geopolitical shifts are rapidly transforming our familiar world, leaving no one unaffected. This brings both new, unpredictable risks and a wide range of new, unlimited opportunities…
Press
