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Union Investment has acquired the 5 Keizers office property in the centre of Amsterdam. The property consists of five separate buildings offering a total of around 15,000 sq m of rental space in the historic canal district, which is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The buildings were constructed between 1955 and 1967 and comprehensively upgraded between 2014 and 2016. The vendor of the property is a fund affiliated with MCAP Global Finance (UK) LLP, the European subsidiary of New-York headquartered Marathon Asset Management LP. The purchase price is around EUR 142 million. Union Investment was advised on the deal by Cushman & Wakefield, Drees & Sommer and Dentons. The vendor was advised by Savills and Loyens & Loeff.
Union Investment will add the property to the holdings of its open-ended real estate fund Unilmmo: Deutschland, thereby further expanding the fund’s portfolio in Amsterdam, which already includes the corporate headquarters of Akzo Nobel and the Crowne Plaza Amsterdam Zuid hotel.
“The Netherlands is currently one of the most attractive real estate markets in Europe. The acquisition of the 5 Keizers property represents a rare opportunity to invest in Amsterdam’s historic canal district,” said Martin Schellein, head of Investment Management Europe at Union Investment Real Estate GmbH. “Up to now, our holdings have primarily been located in the city’s modern South Axis business district. This new transaction expands our investment footprint and we are confident that the property has the potential to provide us with strong, sustainable rental income.”
“We are delighted to have completed the transformation of this unique asset over the last three years together with our asset managers at Cording Real Estate Group. With the sale, we hand over the property to an institutional investor with a great breadth of experience in the Dutch market. This will give the asset with its current and future tenants a solid basis for a successful future”, said Jochen Kauschmann, head of asset management at Marathon.
The property at Keizersgracht 271-287 features a multi-tenant structure and is currently used by six tenants from a variety of sectors. The occupancy rate in terms of space was 62 per cent at the time of acquisition. Due to the excellent quality of the location and the unusually large floorplates for the historic canal district of up to 2,500 sq m of rental space per floor, Union Investment sees good opportunities for efficiently increasing occupancy. As well as 13,000 sq m of office space, the property offers approximately 600 sq m of retail space, as well as some 1,500 sq m for other uses. In addition, the generous garden space to the rear of the building enhances user comfort for tenants. The property’s sustainability is currently documented by a local EPC label A energy certificate.
Following this acquisition, Union Investment’s real estate funds hold 15 properties in the Netherlands across a variety of use types and with a total value of some EUR 1.3 billion. Amsterdam accounts for 10 properties worth around EUR 900 million.
Source : Company