GARBE Industrial Launches New Spin-off, GARBE Regeneration

News 01/08/2025

• Subsidiary to go live on 1 August, reactivating unused land
• To be headed by Maik Zeranski and Rick Mädel
• Company to focus on the development of plots, reclamation of brownfield sites and the acquisition of development rights
• Responding to the decline in newly zoned land and to the looming land shortage

Hamburg, 01 August 2025 – GARBE Industrial, one of the leading developers, providers and managers of logistics, light industrial and commercial real estate in Germany and Europe, is expanding its business portfolio: Going live on 1 August 2025, GARBE Regeneration is a new company that specialises in the early detection of land development potential and in the reactivation of unused sites for alternative utilisation. The new company will be headed by Maik Zeranski and Rick Mädel.

The appointment of Rick Mädel puts a demonstrable expert for brownfield developments in charge of GARBE Regeneration. Mädel brings more than ten years of operational experience in the development and revitalisation of industrial sites and brownfield land to the job. He is also the founder of the platform Brownfield24 and chairman of the German Brownfield Association (DEBV). Maik Zeranski is in charge of developments at GARBE Industrial and a Member of the Management Board. Running GARBE Regeneration will be an additional role for him. The senior management team will be supplemented by Adrian Zellner, who is in charge of the Business Development unit of GARBE Industrial and also a Member of the Management Board. Adrian Zellner, too, will retain his current roles at GARBE Industrial.

Focus on the Reactivation of Unused Sites

The purpose of GARBE Regeneration is to detect market opportunities and use options, to develop plots of land, to revitalise brownfield sites and to acquire development rights in order to put vacant or contaminated sites back to economic use. While the company is supposed to realise projects for any type of use in the longer term, its initial focus will be on industrial, logistics and commercial properties.

“Developing brownfield land is far more complex than classic developments, and requires comprehensive technical, economic and legal know-how,” said Maik Zeranski, Managing Director of GARBE Regeneration. “By pooling the relevant competencies in a dedicated spin-off we create the conditions for a more efficient and more structured implementation of such projects.”

Responding to the Structural Land Shortage

The new company is formed against the background of the very low availability of land. The political objective to limit land consumption in Germany in the long term has already begun to manifest itself in a regressive zoning of development land for logistics facilities. In central logistics regions, the available land development potential could be completely exhausted by 2037 – or so the findings of a market analysis of North Rhine-Westphalia as a logistics location suggest that GARBE-Research recently conducted.

“Classic property development is obviously reaching its limits. Accordingly, we are deliberately seeking to reactivate existing land development potential, and thereby contribute significantly to an economically and ecologically sustainable location strategy in Germany and elsewhere in Europe,” explained Rick Mädel, Managing Director of GARBE Regeneration. “The reclamation of industrial brownfield sites is not a stop-gap measure – it is a decisive element for the long-term viability of entire regions. Brownfield land, which has long been perceived as a blight, is considered an opportunity by us.”