German investor Commerz Real has sold the Paternoster Square fully-leased office and commercial building in London in an effort to optimise the portfolio of its Hausinvest open-ended real estate fund.
British investment management platform CLI Dartriver, acting in conjunction with several European family offices, signed the off-market acquisition. The financial details were kept confidential.
Paternoster Square and the eponymous property benefit from the central and historic location in the heart of the City of London close to the nearby St. Pauls Cathedral. The building has five storeys with a total area of 1,897 m2. Around 80% of this is office space which is leased in the long term to the law firm Gateley, while the ground floor accommodates retail outlets.
The property was completed in 2002 in the course of the Paternoster Square urban development and acquired for Hausinvest together with the neighbouring building “Paternoster House”.
'We have utilised the ongoing high demand for properties in excellent locations to achieve a very good result for our investors,' said Maja Procz, global head of Transactions at Commerz Real.
Following the sale the fund will continue to be present in the UK. The largest property in the portfolio is Westfield London, Europe’s largest shopping mall with 250,000 m2 and nearly 300 stores. In addition, the fund owns Paternoster House and 180 Great Portland Street in London, Mann Island in Liverpool, and the centrally located Victoria Square shopping centre in Belfast.
