Interview
What distinguishes WBRE, the Waterbound Real Estate GmbH?
Torsten Lietz: Together with our partners, the WBRE team fulfills all service profiles of the HOAI and the AHO. Therefore, I would not be able to name any major difference in the work of WBRE compared to other market participants. However, what I am very proud of and what distinguishes us from other market participants is the existing team spirit. It is the team spirit that makes the client’s project become our own project.
How long has WBRE been around?
Torsten Lietz: The fun started more than ten years ago. To be more precise, in the summer of 2007, I was asked to prepare a study for the family office Mayfair, which was evaluating the cooperation in a project company between Germanischer Lloyd and Quantum. The study resulted in the question whether I could imagine a self-employment with a corresponding participation of the family office.
And?
Torsten Lietz: There are worse questions and jump-starts to self-employment. Of course, I first discussed the offer with my family. However, the decision was quickly made in favor of self-employment.
How do you know each other?
Thomas Stüwe: I was project manager for the HAM21 airport extension on the part of gmp Architekten and responsible for work phases 6 to 8. gmp was responsible for the complete new construction of Hamburg Airport at that time. I came into the project when the construction phase of today’s Terminal 2 and the pier extension were pending. This is where I met Torsten. At that time still on the “other” side -Torsten as project manager of the project controller.
And that’s how it worked, going into business for yourself together?
Thomas Stüwe: Yes! I still managed a few projects myself as a project manager at Dress & Sommer, but we had never lost sight of each other, so the idea of implementing our own projects was naturally very appealing. After all, it already became apparent at a major construction site like the airport that we both had a common idea of cooperation, which was, however, also promoted by the airport’s management and also implemented very successfully. Even then, Torsten and I realized that you can achieve more as a team than by working against each other. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses and if you know both and deal with them accordingly, you are successful and enjoy what you do all day.
Torsten Lietz: I felt the same way. Together with Thomas, you can achieve a lot. It’s just that when it comes to soccer, we have different attitudes that couldn’t be more different. Thomas is a Werder fan and I carry the rhombus in my heart. But maybe it’s a good thing that we don’t always share the same opinion. We also have very similar ideas about our employees, what makes us tick, how to deal with each other and with whom we want to work on projects. Since we spend a lot of time together, we have always wanted to be a “kind of” family or friends, and we have managed to do that so far thanks to our great team – despite the size we have become. Fortunately, we also have clients who – despite all the controversial discussions that have to be had – see and support this as well.
What does WBRE mean?
Torsten Lietz: The letters stand for Waterbound Real Estate. The term Waterbound comes from English and means something like “connected with water”. A company that was founded in Hamburg somehow always has something to do with water. Even if the first projects were located on the water by chance, we also like to take care of projects that do not meet this criterion, which can be seen from our references. The letter “W” has very quickly become an identification mark for the company. And not only among our customers, but also among our employees.