AEW has acquired the former Scottish Stock Exchange building in Glasgow on behalf of its Europe City Retail Fund for £33m (€38.2m).
The retail-led asset, which is located at 153-159 Buchanan Street & 6-11 Nelson Mandela Place, is the fund’s first acquisition in the UK.
The property comprises 57,190sqft in total and provides 24,920sqft of retail space and 22,704sqft of office accommodation. The five-story building is fully let to nine tenants.
Spencer Corkin, director of investments said: “This is one of the best retail assets in Scotland, reflecting our highly selective acquisition strategy in the UK.
“Buchanan Street is second only to London’s West End in terms of footfall and retail spend, yet it provides a significant prime yield margin. The micro location’s fundamentals remain particularly attractive with almost zero availability and robust occupier demand driving strong rental growth in recent years.”
Christina Ofschonka, Europe city retail fund manager, said: “Through this acquisition, we have added another high-quality asset to the fund portfolio and we have a strong pipeline of further potential investments.
“Over the last 12 months, we have expanded the breadth and depth of our investor base with new investors from Italy and the Netherlands, reflecting the strong appetite among institutions for this focused retail strategy.”
Europe City Retail Fund was launched in 2015 to focus on high quality, income-producing assets in European tier-one and capital city centres.
The latest acquisition brings the fund’s portfolio to 21 assets across ten cities, including Copenhagen, Dublin, Glasgow, Madrid, Milan and Paris, with a total value of over €620m.
