
ECE Real Estate Partners
Where Expertise Meets Opportunity
We are Europe’s leading private institutional real estate investment and fund management platform with a focus on shopping centres and hotels.
Leveraging the large operational platform and expertise of the ECE Group, we are uniquely positioned to maximize value through proactive value-creation measures and to deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns to our hotel and shopping centre investors.
ECE Real Estate Partners is fully owned by the Otto family and is a part of the ECE Group. We manage assets totalling over ten billion euros across prime shopping centres and hotels in seven European countries.
Our team of 40 real estate and investment professionals boasts an average of 15 years of experience, leveraging the extensive European platform of ECE. With equity commitments exceeding 2.3 billion Euros, raised from top-tier institutional investors, our funds benefit from a strong alignment of interests, including significant capital commitments from the Otto family and ECE executives.
We are 100% privately owned by the Otto family and have over 3,400 property specialists across 13 countries providing leasing, centre management, revitalization, construction, and financing services. Our vast network of international tenants and institutional investors ensures access to extensive transaction flows and financing opportunities.
Our hands-on asset management expertise enables us to execute tenant-mix optimization, expansions, and repositioning initiatives. We also leverage ECE’s platform for sourcing, due diligence, property management, leasing, and back-office support.
ECE Real Estate Partners S.à r.l., our Luxembourg-based subsidiary, was one of the first to be fully authorized by the Luxembourg Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) as an Alternative Investment Fund Manager (AIFM).

Founded in
2010
10 bn. €
Assets undER management
5.5 bn. €
Equity deployed
Shopping Centres & Hotels in
7
COUNTRIES
40
Investment Professionals
AIFM
regulated by CSSF

ECE Real Estate Partners
Where Expertise Meets Opportunity

Meet the Management
Our founding partner Dr. Volker Kraft set up the platform in 2008 and formed a dedicated and strong investment management team. José María Ortiz oversees the Luxembourg office since 2010 and Markus Schmitt-Habersack joined ECE Real Estate Partners as Managing Partner in 2017.
Our Management Team
Dr. Volker Kraft

Managing Partner / Hamburg
Markus Schmitt-Habersack

Managing Partner / Hamburg
José María Ortiz

Managing Director / Luxembourg
Ascan Kókai

Principal – Hotel / Hamburg
Carsten Remmert

Principal – Retail / Hamburg
Christian Müller

Principal – Retail / Hamburg