A joint venture of institutional investors led by Deutsche Finance America, a subsidiary of Deutsche Finance Group and BLG Capital, a division of Bilgili Group focused on hotel and lifestyle investments, acquired more than 100,000 sq ft of vacant office space in the “Gucci Building” at 685 Fifth Avenue from a publicly-traded real estate investment trust. The joint venture successfully raised $155 million of equity for the acquisition and development and will seek approximately $100 million of debt financing to fully capitalize the project.
The joint venture includes Bayerische Versorgungskammer (“BVK”) which is Germany’s largest manager of public pension schemes investing through a fund administered by Universal-Investment, the Versicherungskammer Bayern Group (“VKB”), the largest public insurer in Germany, another Munich-based insurer and institutional real estate funds managed by Deutsche Finance Group.
Dr. Sven Neubauer, Chief Investment Officer of Deutsche Finance Group, commented, “685 Fifth Avenue is an iconic piece of real estate in an irreplaceable location and I am very excited about its potential for redevelopment. I am also very pleased to announce the market entry of Deutsche Finance America, our subsidiary focused on direct investments in the United States, with such a high-profile project.”
“We are very excited about our partnership with one of the most reputable global investors in the private equity business, and look forward to diversifying our portfolio further via carefully selected investments in the global real estate market. The transaction marks an important strategic partnership between the firms, who are looking to grow their portfolio further in other global hubs, having previously invested in several projects in Istanbul and now in New York,” said Serdar Bilgili, Chairman of BLG Capital.
Source : Company