REAL ESTATE – The €11.4bn Philips Pension Fund has acquired Amsterdam Symphony, a real estate project in Amsterdam’s main new real estate project called Zuid As.

According to unnamed sources, the acquisition will have cost between €250-300m. Amsterdam Symphony has been acquired by Philips Real Estate Investment Management (PREIM), the real estate manager of the pension fund.

According to the project manager Bouwfonds MAB Ontwikkeling CVG and Trimp & Van Marwijk Property Development, Amsterdam Symphony will be incorporating housing, work and recreation facilities.

Meanwhile, the fund has stated that it has sold two office buildings in the Amsterdam area to Fortis for an undisclosed sum.

They are the Unisys headquarters in Schiphol Rijk (14,000 sq metres) and the Telespy building in Sloterdijk (9,000 sq metres).

Both buildings had to deal with a large volume of rental space still open. Around 6,800 square metres is slated not to be rented at all at present.

Both parties have not given any indication about the real reason behind the divestment, but increased office space availability in the respective regions are slated to be behind the divestment.

Sloterdijk and Schiphol Rijk have currently feeling the pressure of new real estate development projects elsewhere in and around Amsterdam, especially the Zuid As.