CB Richard Ellis Investors has bought a West End office block for £32 mln (EUR 37 mln) in the first acquisition for its newly-launched Pan European Core (PEC) fund.

CB Richard Ellis Investors has bought a West End office block for £32 mln (EUR 37 mln) in the first acquisition for its newly-launched Pan European Core (PEC) fund.

The European investment management firm has purchased an office building located at 15-17 Broadwick Street in London from Michael and Steven Elghanayan's Epic for a net initial yield of 5.25%. Designed by star architect Richard Rogers, the property offers nearly 3,000 m2 of space and is fully let to Ford for another 10 years.

Although CBRE Investors declined to reveal the size of the new fund, it is understood that the company has been raising a significant amount of equity from several European institutional investors.

'CBRE Investors have been able to deliver strong core strategies for our investors over the last 20 years and as more investors are now looking to invest in core property our new fund is in line with investors' wishes at the moment,' Damien Revon, managing director of CBRE Investors in France told PropertyEU.

The euro-denominated vehicle will be looking for opportunities mostly in the UK, Germany and France and an announcement of new acquisitions of logistics and retail space in France and Germany is expected to be made in the near future.

The fund has a strategy of investing throughout Europe in well-leased retail and logistics properties, with exposure to offices when the rental cycle is at the bottom and recovering from a period of falling rental levels. 'This first acquisition is entirely in line with the fund's strategy to invest in business premises which offer opportunities according to the market cycle and to take advantage from a locally restricted supply and increasing demand which should drive up rental values,' Revon said.

H2SO Property Consultants acted for CBRE Investors and Michael Elliott acted for Epic.