News from 09/09/2008
Patrizia Immobilien: €78.5mn block sales in Dresden and Munich
Patrizia Immobilien AG based in Augsburg reported two block sales totaling 381 units at a volume of €78.5mn. The two separate transactions were the revitalization projects Altmarktkarree 1 in the inner city of Dresden and Prinzregentenstrasse in the center of Munich. The 318 residential and 39 commercial units in the Altmarktkarree went to Patroffice GmbH & Co. KG, in which Patrizia holds a 6.25% minority share and two international institutional investors hold 93.75%. The “Prinzregentenstrasse” object comprising 24 units was sold to a Spanish investor. Patrizia’s management sees the transactions as “another building block toward reaching our profit prediction for 2008.” Analysts had recently cast doubt on the firm’s ability to fulfill its own forecasts.
GPT Halverton: Retail properties acquired for €28mn
GPT Halverton has acquired eleven German retail properties for approximately €27.8mn. The objects, with a total floor area of 18,900 sqm scattered throughout Germany, were purchased from nine different sellers. The properties situated in North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Bavaria and eastern Germany are to be integrated into the GRP (German Retail Partnership) fund, which thereby attains a volume of some €136mn. Further investments worth around €50mn are currently under consideration. GPT reported that the fund is expected to reach its target volume of €285mn in the first quarter of 2009.
Wölbern Invest: Germany fund invests €33.7mn in Hamburg
Wölbern Invest AG is putting another closed Germany fund on the market. “Wölbern Deutschland 03” is investing a total of approximately €33.76mn (around €16.5mn of this in equity) in the Tom Tailor GmbH headquarters in Hamburg. Tom Tailor holds a lease running to April 30, 2022 on 100% of the object. It uses the property, constructed in 1989 and in part rebuilt, as an office with an outlet, a showroom and a storehouse. The fund has a probable lifetime of eleven years and Wölbern projects annual payoffs of 5.75% starting in 2009, rising to 6.75%. Consultation for the transaction was provided by Centurion Business Consulting GmbH & Co. KG, Hamburg. Marketing of the fund is exclusively by Hamburger Sparkasse.
Bremen: Siedentopf to build office lofts on 10,000 sqm
he former roasting facilities of the Eduscho coffee concern in the “Überseestadt” area are being converted into an office and commercial house called “Rösterei.” The owner, project developer and builder is H. Siedentopf. The total of 10,000 sqm will retain a loft-like character thanks to windows reaching to the floor. Construction has begun, occupancy is scheduled for May, 2009 and approximately 30% of the floor space is already rented. The design for the conversion is by the architects Hilmes Lamprecht in Bremen.
HSH Nordbank: Staff reduction and sale of real estate business in New York
HSH Nordbank plans to cut costs. To that end, the institution is planning to shed a total of 600 jobs in Germany and abroad by 2010. The bank also intends to dispose of some operations and non-strategic equity holdings, including its real estate business in New York and corporate client activities in Asia. The bank announced this at the presentation of its balance sheet for the first half of the year. During the period covered by the report, group net income plummeted from €727mn last year to €129mn and net income before tax came to €99mn (last year: €871mn). The main reasons for the setback were €511mn in write-downs on the credit investment portfolio. The revenue of the property division also dropped sharply, from €206mn during the same period in the prior year to €106mn.
Stuttgart: Cologne Architects win “Stuttgart 21” design competition
The JSWD Architekten office in Cologne has won an architectural competition in the large-scale urban development project “Stuttgart 21.” Its design for the 4,160 sqm building lot A1.10.2 projects mixed use with commercial and gastronomic areas as well as flexibly dividable office space. The builders, Fay Projects GmbH and Gero Real Estate AG, assume that construction work can begin in 2009. Completion of the project is slated for the middle of 2010. According to previous announcements, the investment volume is planned at approximately €56mn. In all, six offices participated in the competition, including Albert Speer und Partner, Fischer Architekten and RKW Rohde, Kellermann, Wawrowsky.