Principal Real Estate, the real estate arm of Principal Global Investors, and Atream, a French real estate private equity firm, have acquired the Urban Garden office complex in Lyon, France for more than €150m from HIG Capital.
The five buildings were purchased on behalf of the Principal European Office Fund and Atream-led club deal involving French institutional investors Caisse d’Epargne Rhône Alpes Foncière, Caisse d’Epargne Normandie, Caisse d’Epargne Loire Drôme Ardèche, Caisse d’Epargne Loire Centre, Groupama Rhône Alpes, CARAC, SCI CARAC Perspectives Immo and SCI Atream Euro Hospitality.
Urban Garden, completed last year, encompasses 29,927sqm of space and is fully let with a combined weighted-average lease term of 8.4 years.
Guillaume Masset, president and head of transactions and asset management for Europe at Principal, said: “Urban Garden is a prime office asset, let to strong covenants on long leases.
“Built to high environmental and sustainability standards, it is well suited to the future evolution in office use in Europe, incorporating servicing as well as large open spaces and natural light inside and out.”
Pascal Savary, president of Atream, said the modern asset “meets the highest standards in terms of services and tenants well-being” He said: “We are proud to be able to support the development of such assets at the heart of the real economy of our large regional cities.”
HIG Capital acquired Urban Garden in October 2019 before redeveloping it, securing a BREEAM excellent rating and full occupancy.
Riccardo Dallolio, managing director and head of HIG Europe Realty Partners, said: “Urban Garden is another example of our ability, through our value-add initiatives and hands-on asset management approach, to deliver high-quality, future-proof assets that appeal to long-term institutional investors.”
Mihai Gavriloiu, Principal at HIG Europe Realty Partners, said: “France represents an important part of our European strategy where we continue to seek additional small and mid-cap, value-add investment opportunities to increase HIG’s presence in this market.
“We are very pleased with the strong returns we were able to achieve on this exit.”
The transaction was brokered by CBRE and BNP Real Estate.
