Pan-European property investment and asset management specialist BMO Real Estate Partners (BMO REP) has bought two prime high street retail properties in Amsterdam and Brussels for a combined €60 mln on behalf of its pan-European retail property investment fund.
'Our first fund acquisition in Amsterdam provides us with exposure to another important market and further diversifies our portfolio,' Ian Kelley, fund director Europe at BMO Real Estate Partners.
'The Brussels investment, meanwhile, reinforces our fund profile with the addition of a Prada flagship store. Once again we have been extremely selective in ensuring that we are investing in the very best luxury retail locations in leading European cities.'
The acquisition in Amsterdam, at Rokin 17, is the first investment in The Netherlands for the portfolio and comprises a 1,328 m2 mixed-use trophy asset that was fully redeveloped in 2014, with five luxury residential units as well as 600 m2 retail space. The retail unit is let to Hudson’s Bay on a recently closed 20-year lease.
The second investment is the new Prada store on Brussels’ high-end Boulevard de Waterloo, which was also sourced off-market, and is a 986 m2 retail unit on the ground and basement floors of the five star hotel, 'The Hotel’. The store is Prada’s flagship in Belgium which opened in October 2017 following a full refurbishment.
BMO REP's pan-European retail fund focuses on selective, high-quality retail investment opportunities in prime shopping streets within major European cities and is aimed at institutional investors.
The investment manager is part of Canada’s BMO Financial Group’s £189 bn global asset management business.
