Global asset manager AEW has acquired Baseler Palais, an office building in Frankfurt Am Main, Germany, on behalf of AEW Europe Value Investors II (EVI II).
Financial details were not disclosed.
The seven-storey building, which comprises some 5,300 m2 of lettable space, is 50% let with a weighted average lease term of 4.6 years. The main tenant is Leibniz-Institut Hessische Stiftung Friedens-und Konfliktforschung (HSFK), one of the leading peace research institutes in Europe.
Carsten Czarnetzki, fund manager of EVI II at AEW, commented: 'The asset presents an opportunity for our team to implement short to medium term asset management and refurbishment measurements, leveraging our expertise.
'This acquisition is also perfectly aligned with the investment strategy of the fund and our focus is to continue to invest the capital raised for the Fund in top cities across Europe, amongst which Frankfurt is one.'
The transaction is the fund’s first in Frankfurt and the second in Germany, following the acquisition of the Accor Building in Munich last year, and increases EVI II’s assets under management to over €230 mln with nine assets in the portfolio.
The fund raised over €300 mln of equity commitments at first close and is targeting total equity of approximately €500 mln which will provide a total investment capacity of circa €1 bn.
Tobias Schnurer, director investment at AEW, added: 'This acquisition presents an opportunity to acquire a well located office building in one of Germany’s strongest office markets and a major financial centre, which has benefited from the aftermath of Brexit.
'With extremely low vacancy across the city’s office stock and strong occupier demand, rents are continuing to grow and we expect this investment to be well placed to capitalise on this trend.'
AEW was advised by Ashurst, Drees & Sommer and Nova-Ambiente. GSK Stockmann and JLL acted for the vendor.
