News from 11/2/2007
Tishman Speyer: Düsseldorf's "Deutsche Bank Carrée" sold to Spaniards
Tishman Speyer has sold the "Deutsche Bank Carrée" on Königsallee in Düsseldorf to the Spanish property company Metrovacesa S.A. The office ensemble with approximately 54,000 sqm of leasing area comprises seven completely rented objects; as they are connected with each other, their front line on Königsallee is about 140 m long. 70% of the object is rented to Deutsche Bank AG. Further renters are Eurohypo AG, as well as the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, BB-Bank, and Lang & Schwarz Wertpapierhandelsbank AG.
Berlin: Accor planning three hotels on Adenauerplatz
Accor Group is planning three hotels on the north side of Adenauerplatz in Berlin's Charlottenburg district. The Accor houses with the brand names Etap, Ibis, and Suitehotel are projected in new buildings on Lewishamstraße and Wilmersdorfer Straße, the daily newspaper Der Tagesspiegel reports. Accor recently presented its concept to the district’s planning committee. While there is no leasing contract with the landowner as yet, Accor has already issued a declaration of intention and is also considering the purchase of the plots, Der Tagesspiegel says. Ideally, commencement of construction could be in February, 2009; the opening of the hotels with a total of some 440 rooms and an underground garage with 133 parking places would be possible a year later. Accor is already operating a comparable three-house hotel park on Stresemannstraße in Berlin's Kreuzberg district.
MPC Capital: Joint Venture founded for property fund in India
The Hamburg issuing house MPC Capital is setting its sights on the residential property market in India: For this purpose, it has founded, in cooperation with Swiss Synergy Asset Management, the joint venture MPC Synergy Real Estate seated in New Delhi. MPC Capital has announced the issuing of the closed property fund "Indien" ("India") before the end of the year. The fund with a volume of approximately €69mn is going to finance the construction of three apartment projects with a total of some 3,500 new apartments in India. The local partner is the project development company AKME Projects, Ltd. which is to participate in the fund for a sum of around €14mn. MPC Capital declares that it wishes, with this fund, to offer private investors the opportunity to take part in the dynamic development of the Indian property market.
DekaBank: Large-scale plans for property financing
DekaBank is aiming at a massive expansion of its international property financing transactions. New business is to attain a volume of €5bn in 2008, says Anni Hönicke, DekaBank’s Manager of international property financing. A new strategic orientation is the basis of the plans for growth: The Bank now intends to do business directly with its customers rather than via participations and is targeting the opening of offices in all the important markets in the world. Hönicke sees the expansion projects in no way hampered by the current financial crisis.
ING Real Estate: Office tower in Brussels acquired from Union Investment
ING Real Estate is acquiring the office high-rise "Bastion Tower" in Brussels from Union Investment Real Estate AG for €142mn. ING Real Estate European Office Fund and ING Office Fund seated in Australia are sharing the purchase 50-50. The building designed by the architect Aldo Sanguinetti, located in the European Quarter of the Leopold District, is 90 m high, with 31,484 sqm of office space on 26 floors, and has 510 parking spaces. The anchor tenant is the international attorneys’ firm Freshfields. The property is almost completely let; Suez, Société Générale, RBB, Schneider, and King Sturge are among the tenants.
Jones Lang LaSalle: Profit skyrockets by 88% in third quarter
Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) reports an 88% profit increase to the record-breaking sum of $46.5mn (€32.25mn) for the third quarter. Compared with the same period in the previous year, the international property consulting company’s turnover rose by 35% to $624mn (€431mn). In the region comprising Europe, the Near East, and Africa, turnover rose by 33% to $225mn (€156mn). Despite the insecure situation on the capital markets, the firm is expecting stable performance in the coming months.
Leipzig: Architect's competition for "Gewandhaus-Arcaden" decided
The Berlin office Grüntuch und Ernst has won first prize in the architect's competition for a planned shopping center at the Brühl in Leipzig. The project called "Gewandhaus-Arcaden" initiated by mfi AG, Essen, comprises not only a new building, but also a landmarked department store. 30 architectural offices participated in the competition. mfi AG announced that it would swiftly carry out the winning design. "Unfortunately, this makes our shopping center somewhat more expensive than €200mn. But we accept this gladly. The opening is planned for the autumn of 2010," Chairman Herbert Appelt told the newspaper Leipziger Volkszeitung.