GLOBAL - Helical Retail is to buy a 13-acre site in the UK Midlands to develop into a supermarket and retail park.
The company - a joint venture between Helical Bar and Oswin Developments - exchanged conditional contracts to buy the site in Tyseley, Birmingham from Eaton Electric, according to a statement from Helical Bar.
The joint venture intends to build a 71,600 square foot Asda supermarket and a 70,000 square foot retail park, as long as it gets planning permission for the project.
The retail site is part of a wider 30-acre regeneration project, which also includes an industrial scheme being developed by company Mucklow and a five-acre residential development.
The total cost of the development is expected to be about £50m (€57m), of which Helical Retail's share is £30m.
In other news, logistics developer Helios Europe said it won €100m of backing for its development pipeline from private equity real estate firm Tristan Capital Partners.
Helios Europe said the funding partnership agreement between it and the Curzon Capital Partners III fund - a €500m vehicle managed by Tristan Capital Partners - would invest in European pre-let deals in the Benelux countries, Germany, Austria and Sweden.
The fund is looking for opportunities in economies where demand for 'build-to-suit' projects in the logistics sector is growing.
De Morgan & Co acted for Helios Europe in structuring the agreement, while Tristan Capital Partners was represented by Simon Lewis of Lewis Ellis LLP.
Meanwhile, Germany's €5bn Patrizia Immobilien has bought a residential building in Copenhagen for around €50m.
The real estate company said it has bought the property via subsidiary Patrizia WohnInvest KAG for the Euro City Residential Fund I.
The seller is an unnamed Danish project company.
The building is five kilometres from the centre of the Danish capital and was completed in October 2009. It contains 159 units with total living space of 14,385 square meters.
The Copenhagen property had a 0% vacancy rate and the stepped rental agreements comprised a rental increase of 3% a year.
In other German news, commercial real estate firm BEOS said it has bought a building in Berlin for its Beos Corporate Real Estate Fund Germany I in a €16m deal.
The property - in the Marienfelde district of the German capital - had 43,000 square meters of commercial space, which was fully leased for 10 years to electrical company Converteam, it said.
The seller was EHG Elekroholding, represented by Daimler Real Estate. The deal was brokered by BNP Paribas Real Estate.
Including this acquisition, the fund now has seven Berlin commercial properties in its portfolio. It has 10 other German investments located in Hamburg, Mainz, Karlsruhe and Stuttgart.
Meanwhile, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has linked up with General Growth Properties to buy a shopping centre in St Louis.
The new joint venture was formed to acquire Plaza Frontenac in St Louis. As part of the deal, CPPIB will invest in GGP's Saint Louis Galleria shopping centre.
Following the acquisition, the joint venture will maintain ownership of the two high-profile shopping centres.
Under the joint venture, GGP will own a 55% interest and CPPIB a 45% interest in Plaza Frontenac.
CPPIB's acquired interest in Saint Louis Galleria will be 26%.
Lastly, Jersey-based Wainbridge Capital has acquired about 160,000 square feet of West London office space for £16m (€18.3m).
The UK property investment manager said it had bought the long leasehold interest in West London office building FC200 from an offshore investor.
The deal price reflected a capital value of £95.50 per square foot and had been made on behalf of its London 'value-add' office fund Wainbridge Global Opportunities London.
The property is a part-completed office development and part of phase two of the West London business park, situated off the A40 at the Hanger Lane roundabout.
Taylor Wessing acted for Wainbridge on legal aspects of the deal, while Beadmans acted on construction aspects.
Law firm Macfarlanes acted for the vendor with CBRE acting as vendor's agent.
