have you ever been to berlin? plenty of new construction in central areas. either by razzing older, lower-rise, buildings or by filling in unbuilt or blighted areas (fewer of those as time goes on but there were vast areas where the walls & no-mans zones used to occupy).
Berlin is a weird city isn’t it; when I was there Mitte really wasn’t great because of the wall and there being effectively a West and East German centre to the city or rather it felt like every region had its own charm say.