AXA IM Alts and Quest Investment Partners have joined forces to buy a 15,000sqm office building in Berlin’s Mitte district for an undisclosed sum.
The joint venture has bought the seven-storey building at Sellerstraße 31 in a sale-and-leaseback deal from an unnamed pharmaceutical company.
Built in 1992, the asset will be used by the current tenant for at least another two years, after which the new owners intend to undertake a repositioning programme.
AXA IM Alts said the transaction continues its strategy of undertaking asset management initiatives in Germany on behalf of its value-add strategies.
Ulrike Haack, the head of transactions Germany at AXA IM Alts, said: “This is a rare opportunity to acquire an income-producing building in one of Europe’s fastest-growing submarkets.
”The short lease offers the potential to reposition the asset to deliver a modern, fit for purpose office building that will be a beneficiary of both the shortage of Grade-A stock as well the submarkets burgeoning position as research and innovation hub, which has been earmarked for significant private and public sector investment.”
Jan Rouven Künzel, a managing partner at Quest Investment Partners, said subject to the necessary approvals, the joint venture intends an extensive repositioning programme on expiry of the current lease with the aim of designing a highly modern, sustainable and future-proof building.
“Furthermore, we plan to activate the unused area potential of the property to redevelop and reposition the location.”
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