Allianz Real Estate has bought the Kö-Galerie on Königsallee, Düsseldorf's famous luxury shopping mile.

Allianz Real Estate has bought the Kö-Galerie on Königsallee, Düsseldorf's famous luxury shopping mile.

The price tag was around €300 mln and the.sellers are funds managed by Blackstone and Hamburg-based shopping center operator ECE.

Located in the heart of Düsseldorf, the shopping and office centre offers a total of 50,000 m2 of space. The retail element includes 20,000 m2 of space over 90 shops and is rented out to numerous international brands such as Bally, Jil Sander, Lacoste, Gant, Thomas Sabo and Aigner.

The office area above the mall was recently renamed Kö Höfe and consists of 30,000 m2 of space over seven storeys. The property also has 1,000 basement parking spaces. Hamburg-based ECE will continue to manage the scheme.

Blackstone owns 88% of Ko Galerie, which it bought from Merrill Lynch in 2012. German shopping mall operator ECE Projektmanagement owns the remaining 12% stake.

The asset was put on the market last year ahead of an October 15 maturity of the commercial mortgage-backed securities underlying the property. The €560 mln Opera Germany 2 securitised debt was arranged by Eurohypo (now Hypothekenbank Frankfurt) in December 2006 and comprised three German shopping centres including Ko Galerie, with a senior loan of €227 mln.

The asset was valued at €274 mln at its last appraisal in March 2012.

'We are delighted to add this prominent property, located right in the center of Düsseldorf, to our portfolio,' said Stefan Brendgen, CEO of Allianz Real Estate Germany. 'In so doing, we are following our strategy of acquiring high-value retail properties in Europe.'

The acquisition is part of Allianz's strategy to boost the retail share of its portfolio from 19% to around 30% within the next two to five years.

Allianz Real was advised by Clifford Chance, CBRE and Valteq with regard to the transaction.