Two Years of Angermann NRW

Getting Started: Taking Over a House You Didn't Build Yourself

Gruhler: And looking back, that’s the key point for me. We weren’t naive. From the very beginning, we had clear objectives—a strategy, milestones, and a roadmap for the company’s development. But we knew this: You can’t redesign a company overnight if you didn’t design it yourself. You have to respect that first.

Pictured: Hamburg in the spring of 2024, on the way to the Angermann Real Estate Group; negotiating the partnership agreement.

The Trio: Three Specialists, a Complete Market

Wunderle: Our particular strength actually lies in the division of our areas of expertise. I originally came from the office leasing sector, where I was responsible for major corporate accounts. Through Kore Capital, I brought asset management expertise to Angermann NRW—an area that didn’t previously exist at this level of depth. I also helped build up the investment division: from a rather informal department into a professional unit that has recently managed large mandates for institutional investors and private equity firms.

Sohns: I have been building up the Industry & Logistics division at RheinReal since 2010. This means we were already operating successfully in this segment when many other market participants in Cologne weren’t even active there yet. Without this groundwork, the division wouldn’t exist in its current, mature structure. And since 2025, we’ve been strategically expanding our investment business within this field. It’s still a young sector with tremendous potential, one that is naturally highly dependent on market conditions.

Gruhler: And I’m the outsider to the industry—Corporate Relations, Digitalization, AI, Marketing, Business Development, Corporate Development. For over seventeen years, I helped build one of Germany’s largest owner-managed digital agencies. What I bring to the table is rarely found at a traditional real estate brokerage: digitalization and AI as part of our DNA, not just an afterthought.

Sohns: The key point is: None of us tries to be a jack-of-all-trades. Each of us is responsible for our own area. Together, these three specializations cover exactly what clients are looking for today, what they need, and what they can’t find everywhere at the same high level of quality—from office leasing to industry and logistics to investment. A powerful trio that fully covers the core areas of a business.

Wunderle: And yet, in many ways, we still feel like we’re in a startup. Not because we had to turn a company around—on the contrary: we took over a healthy company. But it’s not often you experience the combination of the substance of a long-established firm and the innovative drive of a startup.

Pictured: The three new shareholders together with the former shareholder Dirk Hindrichs. The sense of camaraderie is still palpable two years after the takeover and remains strong.

Phase 1 - Planning & Decision-Making

Gruhler: Before anything became official, there was a long period of preparation. It involved Angermann NRW’s future model, the partnership agreement, and much more. What often gets overlooked, but was the most important thing for me, was that we defined our values together before day one: mission, vision, purpose. These four corporate values aren’t just marketing—they’re our promise to the team.

Wunderle: Looking back, that was a crucial foundation. When the first truly difficult months arrive, you need something to hold you up. For us, that was our shared values.

Sohns: On July 1, 2024, the time had finally come. The acquisition took effect, and the integration into the Angermann Real Estate Group was complete. From that point on, it was no longer about the plan, but about execution.

Pictured: Westerwald, Hotel Zugbrücke, early 2024. The company takeover was planned during workshops.

Phase 2 - Construction

Wunderle: The first few months were the most intense period. Grassroots work in the best sense of the word. We had to transform RheinReal into Angermann NRW across the board—corporate design, a complete IT overhaul, and the first digital transformation initiatives. And we had to do all of this while ensuring that day-to-day operations didn’t come to a standstill for even a second. At the same time, we were navigating one of the most challenging market phases of recent years. That made it all the more important that we didn’t lose sight of the future.

Gruhler: We were really flying by the seat of our pants during this phase. Lots of unknowns, a fast pace, driven by the need to pull off the transition smoothly—toward new structures, new expectations, new goals. And running parallel to that was the most important task of all: communication. Change communication. Leading an entire team into a new chapter, with new leaders and a new set of values.

Sohns: It’s easy to underestimate that. The hardest part of a phase like this isn’t the IT. It’s the conversations. Getting people on board who have been used to a different company—and possibly a different philosophy—for years.

Phase 3 - Consolidation & Clarity

Gruhler: 2025 was a year of consolidation. The initial intense phase was over, and the focus was on creating clarity: What are we building on? What do we stand for? We streamlined our structures and made targeted investments—in training, in development, and in our core assets.

Wunderle: In every acquisition, it eventually becomes clear that not everyone wants to—or is able to—follow the same path. That’s part of the reality, and you address it with respect and good judgment. What’s more important is what we’ve built: We’ve rejuvenated, expanded, and made new investments. By the end of 2025, we had a team that was united in looking ahead.

Sohns: This phase was less spectacular than the construction phase, but just as important. Without clarity, we wouldn’t have been able to move on to the design phase.

Pictured: The three partners in 2025 at the groundbreaking ceremony for BAUWENS, Goldschmied Carré

Phase 4 - Design

Sohns: Since early 2026, we’ve been in the most exciting phase: the shaping phase. We’re in the driver’s seat. The issues of the past no longer matter—we’re moving forward. Industrial, Light Industrial, and Investment are being successfully developed further, and the successes are even more visible.

Wunderle: And you can see that in the market, too. Perceptions have changed. Today, Angermann NRW is recognized as a brand in its own right—in office leasing just as much as in industrial and logistics or in investment. We’ve worked hard to achieve that over the past two years. It wasn’t handed to us on a silver platter.

Gruhler: In our strategy sessions, we’re now tapping into new markets—and, in some cases, new regions. We can completely reinvent ourselves—without the burden of having to catch up. This is a different way of working than it was just a year ago.

Pictured: East Tyrol 2026 during the team event with all Angermann NRW employees

Energy in the Home

Gruhler: The craziest thing about these past two years isn’t the bottom line. It’s the energy. We feel like our roughly twenty employees are all moving in the same direction. I’ve rarely experienced such unity.

Wunderle: That’s no coincidence. It’s the result of the values we defined before day one—and new internal structures we’ve created to stay close to the team and always in tune with what’s happening. We don’t share all of this publicly. But this closeness is our true asset.

Sohns: Virtually our entire team has been trained by us and through us. Everyone who works here embodies our standards from the very beginning. That ensures a harmonious and well-coordinated working relationship.

Pictured: Gala dinner in East Tyrol in 2026 during the team event with all Angermann NRW employees

Investment Instead of Withdrawal

Sohns: The commercial real estate market has been in a low-level sideways trend for about four years. Of course, we’re feeling the effects of that, too. And yet, we’ve been on solid financial footing from the very beginning because our plans were sound and realistic, and we did our homework.

Gruhler: And at this point, we as shareholders made a conscious decision: investment first. Instead of paying out large sums to ourselves, we’re investing in a modern Angermann NRW that’s clearly recognizable as such in the market. “Creating lasting value”—that’s not just a slogan for the website; it’s our approach to capital allocation.

Wunderle: We think and act with a long-term perspective. Especially in a market that has been trading sideways for an extended period, it is important to remain financially flexible.

Network—and a Thank You

Wunderle: A word about the Angermann Real Estate Group, because it’s simply been an integral part of these past two years. We quickly found our place within the group. The exchange works both ways: We benefit from the group’s expertise and network, while at the same time contributing our strong market presence and our established network in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Gruhler: This mutual enrichment is a real asset. And it wasn’t a given. A big thank you goes to Sami Steinbach and Dr. Torsten Angermann—they were the ones who made this path possible and gave us a warm welcome we’ll never forget.

Pictured, from left to right: Patrick Sohns, Alexander Wunderle, Lucas Agermann, Dr. Torsten Angermann, and Alexander Gruhler during a strategy workshop in Hamburg in March 2026

The Outlook: We're Never Done

Sohns: When people ask us about the future—we’re not even thinking about reaping the rewards just yet. There’s a practical reason for that: Reaping rewards depends on the market, and right now the market isn’t really allowing for it. So we’re continuing to shape the future and invest.

Wunderle: The next phase will therefore likely be a mix of both: continuing to shape the business while at the same time reaping the rewards of past years—whenever the market allows. And I believe that’s exactly what entrepreneurship is all about: there’s never a point where you’re done.

Gruhler: That’s exactly right. We’re ambitious. We value our employees greatly and are true fans of them—just as we are of our customers and our business. We have more ahead of us than behind us—with the same standards we had on day one.