News from 07/11/2008
Nuremberg region: Sonae Sierra plans shopping center with 110 stores in Fürth
The Portuguese project developer Sonae Sierra wants to build a shopping center in the middle of Fürth that will have a cinema, restaurants and some 110 stores. Horst Müller, head of the municipal economic division, confirmed this in an interview with the daily newspaper Fürther Nachrichten. A new building with a subterranean level and two upper floors is to be built on a ground area of12,000 sqm. Construction is to begin at the end of 2009; completion is slated for the end of 2011. The volume of investment is in the nine-digit range. Large parts of a building complex between Breitscheidstrasse and Hallstrasse are to be demolished for the project. Further details are to be announced at a press conference on Monday, July 14.
Aberdeen: Fully placed Nordic Fund I acquires two objects
Aberdeen Property Investors has acquired two further objects in Northern Europe for its Aberdeen Property Nordic Fund I SICAV (FIS). The firm announced that 51% of the equity, raised mainly from German institutional investors, has thus been invested. At the fourth closing in April of this year, €210mn in equity were subscribed for the Nordic Fund I, thereby reaching the quota targeted, the fund management stated. The first of the most recent acquisitions is a completely rented office property measuring 5,877 sqm in the Plaza Business Park in the Helsinki metropolitan area. The “Filbytergallerian” shopping center in Linköping, Swedenwith 16,428 sqm of retail, office and gastronomic space on six stories was also acquired. According to Aberdeen, the investment volume for the shopping center ran to approximately €41mn.
Cologne: Whitehall sells Lufthansa building to Hochtief
The daily newspaper Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger reported that the Whitehall property fund has sold the Lufthansa high-rise at Deutzer Ufer to Hochtief Projektentwicklung. Whitehall had only recently acquired the building complex, in which Deutsche Lufthansa AG had its headquarters until 2007, from Allianz AG in the framework of a portfolio deal. According to the statements made to the paper by Norbert Walter-Borjans, head of the economic division, the office building is to be ready for occupancy at the end of 2010 after renovation and modernization. Walter-Borjans repudiated speculations regarding a conversion of the property into residential space.
Bremen: LaSalle fund acquires three office objects in Airport City
LaSalle German Income & Growth Fund (GIG) has acquired a portfolio with three office objects in “Airport City”at the Bremen airport. The transaction comprises approximately 22,500 sqm of lettable area and a total investment volume amounting to around €35.5mn. This portfolio includes one existing object as well as two office buildings which are still to be built. The inventory object is about ten years old, completely rented long-term and has some 6,500 sqm of usable area. Completion of the two project buildings of approximately 4,600 and around 11,000 sqm is scheduled for December, 2008 and the third quarter of 2009, respectively. Both are completely rented in advance. Administration will be provided by Verwaltungsgesellschaft Airport City mbH. The fund with a volume of about €1bn was advised during the transaction by LaSalle Investment Management.
Wolfsburg: NDC to build four-star hotel at Nordkopf
The Berlin-based investment firm Nippon Development Corporation (NDC) will build a four-star hotel with convention facilities and an underground garage at the Nordkopf in Wolfsburg. A few days ago, the city council approved the sale of the 3,650 sqm lot for which a European-wide call for bids had been issued. The €30mn project is to be developed between the Cinemaxx and the BKK building across from the railroad station. The 195-room hotel is to be operated by the Spanish hotel chain nh. The building was designed by the Berlin architectural office Tchoban and Partner. Works preparatory to construction are to begin in the autumn of 2008; completion is scheduled for 2010. One retail area in the hotel is still to be rented. A permit for construction of a new office and commercial building on the grounds of the former “Centro Italiano” at Heinrich-Nordhoff-Strasse 67-69 was also issued by the city council. Vespermann Grundstücks GmbH i.G. received a limited planning and purchase option for the area measuring some 2,500 sqm. Demolition of the old Centro object is to take place before the end of the year.
Investment market: Financial crisis reaches German market
At the middle of the year, the facts document what all the actors on the market have expected: the German investment market has caught a cold. The financial market crisis has Germany, too, fully in its grip. According to an investment market report compiled by Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), after €7.9bn in the first quarter of 2008, a commercial transaction volume (without residential properties) of only some €4bn was registered between April and the end of June. At €11.9bn, the result of the first half of the year was thus 57% below that of the same period during the prior year. The number of deals fell by 43% compared to the first six months of 2007. Most of the transactions were only in the €10mn to €100mn price range. On the buyers’ side, asset and fund managers, with 25% of the transaction volume, were clearly ahead of the property corporations listed on the stock exchange (12%) and the private equity and hedge funds (11%). In both 2007 and 2008, some two thirds of the equity invested came from abroad. On the sellers’ side, German players dominated with nearly 70% of the transaction volume. The strongest asset class during the period in question was retail properties with a 38% share of the transaction volume (approximately €4.5bn), followed by office properties with 33%. For twelve months now, the report says, a sharp increase in net initial return for office properties can be observed. JLL expects that by the end of the year at the latest, market participants will have grown accustomed to the new price structure and will then somewhat enliven the German investment market. A reported limiting factor is and will remain the banks’ financing policies.
Lübeck: Cornerstone laid for €53mn residential project
The cornerstone has been laid for the “Wohnen im Park” residential project in Lübeck’s urban development area “Hochschulstadtteil”. The Semmelhaack enterprise group intends to construct a total of five residential blocks with some 484 one to four room apartments on a plot measuring around 24,300 sqm between Maria-Göppert-Strasse and Paul-Ehrlich-Strasse. The investment volume amounts to approximately €53mn. An AWO elder facility with 22 units and around 100 nursing area accessible apartments for senior citizens is to be included in one of the blocks. The first house is slated for completion by the end of 2008, the other blocks by the middle of 2010. All the apartments will be barrier-free and built according to the KfW energy-saving house 40 standard.