German real estate fund manager Union Investment has acquired the 107-metre-tall Astro Tower in Brussels from a consortium of Korean investors.
Patrizia bought the building in the Belgian city’s central business district on behalf of the consortium in 2016, soon after it had been refurbished.
It includes 30 storeys of office space and is fully let to Actiris, public employment service agency, with 21 years remaining on the lease.
The asset has been purchased for UniInstitutional European Real Estate, a fund that recently raised new capital and which owns two other assets in Brussels, The Precedent office building and Motel One hotel.
“This transaction allowed us to promptly invest the money raised in a cash-flow-generating asset with a very stable value,” said Wolfgang Kessler, member of the management team at Union Investment Institutional Property.
“We are delighted to have secured this extremely sustainable office building for our institutional real estate fund.
“With its long-term lease and its prime office location in one of Europe’s most important markets, it ticks every box for a core investment.”
Patrizia said it sold the shares of the company owning Astro Tower on behalf of the AIP Asset Managment consortium, one of its single-asset clients.
Kim Sardar, head of single-asset mandates and director of fund management at Patrizia, said: “This sale marks the delivery of successful round trip for our client, from acquisition in 2016.
“The single-asset mandates team at Patrizia provides an integrated, one-stop shop for our clients, drawing together expertise from the full range of Patrizia teams from transactions, to asset and development management, and fund services.”
Danny Kim, CEO of AIP Asset Management, said: “The sale certainly demonstrated solid quality of the European assets with robust returns, further enhancing the level of interest in European assets among the Korean investors.”
Astro Tower was the first in the Belgian capital city to achieve the highest possible energy performance certification, following its refurbishment in 2015 and 2016.
Suzy Denys, country manager and director of transactions Belux at Patrizia, said: “Astro Tower is a highly sustainable office building let on an indexed lease and ticks all the boxes for investors seeking a core office asset in a core European city.”
