US private equity firm Blackstone has acquired an office building in the southeast district of Amsterdam for almost €124 mln, PropertyEU has learned.
The Acanthus building was sold by Credit Suisse Asset Management in late December in one of the largest Dutch single assets transactions of 2016.
The property was acquired by Maxima Propco, a special purpose vehicle managed by Blackstone. This information was verified by PropertyEU Research through a check of the Dutch land registry or Kadaster and with the chamber of commerce.
Acanthus is located at Bijlmerdreef 20 in the southeast of the Dutch capital was developed by the now defunct ING Real Estate Development. The property comprises 41,000 m2 and is let entirely to the ING Bank group.
The building was the last remaining unsold asset from Credit Suisse's Maxima portfolio. The other 14 assets were acquired by MCAP, part of US group Marathon Asset Management, for the reportedly heavily discounted price of €372 mln in March 2016.
NL Real Estate, in combination with Knight Frank, marketed the portfolio and advised on the sales. Both firms declined to comment when contacted about the sale of Acanthus.
Nevertheless, the transaction underscores that foreign investors are willing to look beyond the very core markets in the Netherlands to good well-let assets in secondary locations. Acanthus is situated next to Bijlmer train and metro station and the central living and shopping location in Amsterdam southeast. Nearby, Dutch developers OVG and G&S Real Estate are working on a new 36,000 m2 headquarters for ING, cementing the bank's choice of Bijlmerdreef as a key location.
