CBRE GI buys Airesur mall in Seville for €76m

CBRE Global Investors has completed the acquisition of Airesur, the largest shopping centre in the southern Spanish city of Seville, for €76.5 mln.

The asset has been acquired on behalf of one of its separate account clients.

PropertyEU reported earlier in March that Grupo Lar, acting in joint venture with clients of La Caixa Private Banking, was selling the mall, which provides 20,183 m2 of space.

Airesur opened in June 2004 and was sold to Grupo Lar in 2006 for over €100 mln.

The shopping centre is located adjacent to the only IKEA store in the city and comprises 87 retail units, including mid-sized units like Mercadona supermarket, different Inditex brands and H&M.

'We believe Airesur is an excellent acquisition for our client as well as being a perfect fit for our portfolio rotation process,' commented Jose Borregon, managing director Spain and Portugal, CBRE Gl. 'There are a number of asset management opportunities to modernise the centre and we will be working closely with the local authorities and tenants to improve the customers shopping experience.'

CBRE GI plans to appoint Cushman & Wakefield as property manager.

Borregon: 'With this acquisition, I am very pleased to confirm that we are one of the most active operators in the market, with more than €350 mln of investments executed within the last six months and we aim to keep investing and implementing our portfolio rotation strategy.'

Jeroen de Grunt, portfolio director separate accounts Continental Europe, CBRE Global Investors, said: 'Our client is actively acquiring well-performing shopping centres across Continental Europe. Besides Spain we are looking to acquire shopping centres of equal quality in Belgium, Germany, France, Poland and the Czech Republic over the next twelve months, in order to further enlarge our client’s retail portfolio.'

Present in Spain since 1996, CBRE Global Investors has €2 bn of assets under management in the Iberian peninsula. The portfolio consists of 20 shopping centres comprising more than 1.3 million m2.