GLOBAL - Bank of London and The Middle East (BLME) has signed a £14m (€16m) construction facility with The Brewery Square Development Company to finance phase 2 of Brewery Square in Dorchester, England.

Resolution Property and Waterhouse are regenerating the site, which includes the restoration and conversion of four listed buildings.

The development will comprise six phases with phase 1 already complete, while phase 2 will comprise 64 residential units and 14 commercial units, some of which have already been pre-let.

In total, 75% of the residential properties have been sold off plan.

Meanwhile, the real estate investment manager Invesco Real Estate (IRE) has completed two transactions in the UK for the Invesco Real Estate-UK III fund.

The first deal is the Paragon office building in Bristol, while the second transaction refers to a retail warehouse in Harlow, north-east London.

Invesco Real Estate-UK III Fund made a total investment of £48m (€55m) for the acquisition of the two properties.

IRE is due to complete this transaction on 9 September.

Toby Simon, Invesco Real Estate's director of fund management, said: "In our view, the beneficial long lease profiles for these properties against a backdrop of shorter lease lengths in the general marketplace, coupled with a favourable market environment and also asset management opportunities for the Bristol property, means these acquisitions represent strong investments for the fund in terms of future capital growth."

Moving to continental Europe, Cushman & Wakefield Investors (CWI) and Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) have acquired Kasernenstrasse 1 in Düsseldorf on behalf of the Pan-European Urban Retail Fund (PURetail).
 
The property, which was acquired for just under €20m, is benefiting from an improving streetscape due to fact the tram lines are being replaced by an underground Metro line and subsequent widening of the pavements. 

The PURetail Fund was launched at the end of March following a first close of €100m in equity from three institutional investors. 

In France, UBS Real Estate is selling the Le Madone office building in Puteaux, near Paris, to Havas, a French marketing group.

Havas announced that a preliminary contract had been signed for a total of €152m.

UBS acquired the property in April 2003 for the UBS Euroinvest open-ended fund for approximately €128m.

Finally, a fund managed by Rockspring Property Investment Managers has reached an agreement with Landesbank Hessen Thüringen Girozentrale and Aareal Bank for a €219m debt facility for the O'Parinor shopping centre in the north of Paris.

Rockspring secured the new €219m facility on behalf of NPS Real Estate Projects Limited Partnership.

The duration of the loan is five years, with extension options for a further two years.

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