REAL ESTATE – A digest of the latest real estate deals involving: Scarborough, GE Real Estate, CBRE, Multi Development, RREEF, and Savills.
Scarborough mops up German logistics
Scarborough Continental Partners, a joint venture between Scarborough Property Holdings and Bank of Scotland, last week acquired Karlsruhe industrial park for £44.75m.
The park, constructed over three decades from the 1970s, comprises 10 warehouses, 10 low-rise office blocks and a multi-story car park.
GE joint venture invests in UK leisure
GE Real Estate has acquired the eight-acre Manchester Arena for €89.3m in a 70:30 joint venture with property management firm Capital & Regional.
The acquisition – from the US Anschutz Group – comprises the 20,000 seat arena, located in Manchester city centre, 120,000 square feet of offices, and retail space.
Fredrik Widlund, head of business development at GE Real Estate, said the firm had been scouting UK leisure assets “for some time”. He added that the arena, completed in 1995 as part of Manchester’s Olympic bid, was one of the country’s most successful venues.
CBRE backs industrial
US real estate brokerage CB Richard Ellis last week bought UK industrial real estate firm Holley Blake for €17.25m cash.
The firm suggested that the availability of the 16-strong UK company had provided “a strategic opportunity” to build up CBRE’s industrial and logistics capabilities in the UK and boost its European service offering.
German bank’s London offices sold to former rival
Deutsche Bank subsidiary RREEF last week purchased the freehold of German bank HVB bank’s central London offices for £12.7m.
A spokeswoman for RREEF said it favoured central London offices because of high occupier demand and the potential for strong medium-term rental growth. RREEF declined to quantify the expected yield on the property at 41 Moorgate EC1.
Savills targets big bidder for German job-lot
Savills is to sell three German portfolios on behalf of an unidentified private client.
The portfolios, which the firm claims offer rental income of €17.5m, are located in Hamburg, Essen, Berlin and Lubbenau. They comprise 48% residential, 34% commercial, and 15% retail space. Around 14% of the residential property is currently undergoing refurbishment, though it has guaranteed leases from November 2006.
“They could go for more or less,” said Wilcox. “It’s difficult to put a figure on it. It depends on the interest.”
