Logistics market: Increases in take-up and investment
Warehousing take-up (leasing and owner occupation) rose by some 10% to 1.94mn sqm during the first half of 2008 compared to the prior year. According to a current market report compiled by Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), take-up was in fact approximately 39% higher than the five-year average. For the rest of this year, the brokerage house predicted continuously high demand for space, but deemed it improbable that the previous year’s take-up of 3,88mn sqm can be surpassed. JLL also registered growth in the investment market for logistics and industrial properties. During the first half of the year, a hike of about 20% to €1.2bn was attained. In Hamburg, Munich and Düsseldorf, turnovers of more than €100mn each were reached, with Hamburg, at around €137mn, at the top of the ladder. JLL expects product supply to rise during the second half of the year and transaction volume to exceed the €2bn mark if general economic conditions don’t worsen.
SEB Asset Management: Three warehouses acquired in Spain for €38mn
SEB Asset Management has made further acquisitions in the logistics sector in Spain, by buying three warehouses in the province of Guadalajara, 35 km northeast of Madrid, for its open-ended SEB Global Property Fund. The seller is the Spanish property developer Parques Empresariales Gran Europa S.A. The total investment runs to €37.6mn. In June, SEB Asset Management acquired a logistics object for its SEB ImmoPortfolio Target Return mutual fund in Ciempozuelos, Spain for approximately €39.5mn.
Berlin region: €70mn residential quarter planned for factory site
A residential area with homes for senior citizens, stores and a 50 slip marina is to be developed on the approximately 14 hectares of a former sleeper factory belonging to Deutsche Bahn in Königs Wusterhausen (Dahme-Spreewald) in Brandenburg. According to a report in the daily newspaper Der Tagesspiegel, entrepreneurs Colin de Lange and Arnold Onnebrink founded Wohnen am See Zernsdorf GmbH for this purpose and intend to invest approximately €70mn in the project. Apartment houses, single-family and town houses are planned. De Lage told the paper that employees at the new Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport, which will have its main terminal some 15 to 20 minutes away are targeted as prospective tenants. First, however, by the end of 2009, contaminated soil will have to be removed at a cost of €5mn.
Atrium European Real Estate: Restructuring process at MEL concluded
The Austrian Meinl European Land (MEL) has been renamed Atrium European Real Estate Limited. The transaction with a volume of €800mn with the new large-scale investors, an Israeli-American consortium comprised by Gazit Holdings and the Citibank’s property fund CPI Citi Property Investors, was concluded on August 1. Since then, the enterprise is also being managed by a new team: Atrium’s CEO is Rachel Lavine, Chaim Katzmann is Chairman of the Board. The new board, of which Peter Linneman, among others, is also a member, declares that it wants to introduce “the highest corporate governance and management standards” and “enhance the value of the firm.” The company listed on the Vienna stock exchange and seated in Jersey had suffered from a radical decline in the quotation of its certificates for a year, due to questionable business practices.
Hertie: Insolvency administrator wants to save over 50% of the stores
Biner Bähr, the insolvency administrator for the Hertie department store chain, believes that “a good deal” can be salvaged. “We’re still at the beginning of the procedure. But I suppose that it will be more than half of the stores,” he told the weekly newspaper Welt am Sonntag. “The most important thing, right now, is to get the necessary restructuring and financial measures started as quickly as possible,” Bähr said, noting that this process would last at least three months. During the twelve years of his experience, he elaborated, there had always been possibilities for continuation when the firm involved was still functioning. He said he was confident that he would be able to raise new capital.
Colonia Real Estate: Wittkop leaves board
Colonia Real Estate AG announced that Christoph Wittkop is immediately leaving its board “with the best mutual agreement.” He will henceforth focus his efforts solely on expanding the asset management operations of the group in his position as CEO of CRE Resolution GmbH. CRE lost its asset management cooperation with Oaktree Capital Management (OCM) in June. Instead, CRE took over Cover Projektentwicklung in July, announcing its intention to extend its business activity to the project development and corporate real estate sector.