A private real estate fund managed by Brookfield Asset Management has acquired a £714m (€830m) UK research and innovative real estate platform from TPG Real Estate Partners.
Brookfield said one of its funds has acquired Arlington, a platform comprising 36 assets mainly located between London, Oxford and Cambridge. The portfolio comprises 1.6m sqft of existing assets and 1m sqft of near-term development potential.
TPG acquired Arlington in 2017 for £450m from Goodman Group and Legal & General.
TPG has since invested in Arlington by making selective acquisitions to expand the business, capitalising on development opportunities within the land bank and taking advantage of asset management opportunities within the existing portfolio.
Brookfield said the acquisition complements its 2020 investment in the Harwell Science and Technology Campus located south of Oxford and brings Brookfield’s total square footage in the Golden Triangle to 1.4m sqft of operating space.
Brad Hyler, managing partner and head of European real estate at Brookfield, said: “Arlington represents a compelling opportunity to expand our presence in the growing European science, innovation and technology real estate sector.
“We look forward to supporting Arlington by leveraging our global expertise in managing and developing real estate focused on these dynamic industries and delivering high-quality experiences for our tenants and partners.”
Michiel Celis, managing director at TPG Real Estate Partners, said: “When we acquired Arlington in 2017, we saw an opportunity to invest behind a high-potential property portfolio that had been adversely impacted by challenging market conditions in the wake of the Brexit vote.
“Since then, we have partnered with Arlington CEO James Raven to invest heavily in the platform and execute several non-core disposals and strategic add-on acquisitions to re-position the company as one of the largest integrated innovation real estate platforms in the UK.”
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