AEW’s latest European value-add property fund has added a 5,300sqm German office asset to its portfolio.
The AEW Europe Value Investors (EVI) II fund has paid an undisclosed amount to buy the Baseler Palais building in Frankfurt Am Main, the manager said.
AEW said the transaction is the fund’s first in Frankfurt and the second in Germany and increases EVI II’s assets to nine, worth over €230m.
In May last year, the fund acquired the Accor Building at Hanns-Schwindtstrasse 2-4 in Munich-Riem
EVI II raised over €300m of equity commitments at first close and is targeting total equity of €500m which will provide a total investment capacity of €1bn.
Carsten Czarnetzki, fund Manager of EVI II at AEW, said the asset presents an opportunity for the team to implement short to medium term asset management and refurbishment.
“This acquisition is also perfectly aligned with the investment strategy of the fund and our focus is to continue to invest the capital raised for the Fund in top cities across Europe, amongst which Frankfurt is one.”
Tobias Schnurer, director investment at AEW, said: “This acquisition presents an opportunity to acquire a well-located office building in one of Germany’s strongest office markets and a major financial centre, which has benefited from the aftermath of Brexit.
“With extremely low vacancy across the city’s office stock and strong occupier demand, rents are continuing to grow and we expect this investment to be well placed to capitalise on this trend.”
