Crossbay, the European urban logistics platform set up by real estate investment manager Mark, has acquired three distribution centres in the Netherlands, as well as a development site.
The three assets, situated in prime locations in Eindhoven, Almere, and Barendrecht, represent over 35,000 m2 of high quality warehousing space. All three acquisitions were purchased through off-market transactions for undisclosed amounts.
In addition, Crossbay said that it is also working with Roozen van Hoppe, a local property development and construction company, to develop a distribution centre in Gilze en Rijen, a municipality in the southern Netherlands. Comprising over 8,000 m2 of warehouse and office space, the property has been pre-let to Lily Maas, a logistics and customs declaration company.
The acquisitions follow Crossbay recently signing one of the biggest Asian food importers in Europe as an occupier for a mixed warehousing and commercial asset in Alphen aan den Rijn, in the western region of the Netherlands. The company has signed a five-year lease on the property, which comprises over 9,000 m2 of logistics and office space.
Marco Riva, head of Crossbay and logistics at Mark, commented: ‘This triple acquisition in the Netherlands is part of our expansion strategy, building our presence in established markets outside of our initial portfolio in southern Europe, as well as expanding into new geographies such as Poland. The Netherlands is the most advanced ecommerce economy in the Benelux region and also a key target market for our residential investment platform Doma, which is pursuing a similar strategy to Crossbay by aggregating granular, hard-to-access assets to create a institutional-grade portfolio of scale, then driving a premium through strong branding and proactive asset management.’
Launched in May 2020 by private equity real estate investment manager Mark, Crossbay was designed to enable institutional investors such as pension funds and insurers to grow their exposure to the fast-growing last mile logistics sector.
Crossbay primarily targets single-user distribution centres in locations no more than a 90-minute journey to the centre of the nearest city.
In December 2020, Mark announced a successful capital raise for Crossbay, securing €550 mln in equity commitments from a global range of investors. Investors included the Townsend Group, CBRE GI, Credit Suisse, Nuveen and QInvest LLC.
The fundraise was then followed by a €400 mln debt facility from investment bank Citi in January 2021 to help further fund Crossbay's growth and European expansion.
