Dutch lenders ABN Amro Bank and Rabobank are financing a major new mixed-use development on the north bank of the IJ River in Amsterdam, the Austrian investors revealed during a press conference ahead of the ground-breaking ceremony on Monday.
The Y-Towers development will consist of a four-star hotel, congress centre and residential towers with a market value of €360 mln. Construction costs for the project, which is due for completion at end-2020, are put at €200 mln.
The Austrian investor-developers, Invester United Benefits and IES Immobilien, said they initially approached a number of German and Austrian banks before obtaining the full senior loan from the two Dutch banks.
ABN Amro and Rabobank are providing around €180 mln - equally shared between the two banks - of which €150 mln is being guaranteed under the Dutch government's enterprise programme. The financing deal was signed during the Provada trade fair in Amsterdam at end-May.
‘The German and Austrian banks we approached around three years ago wanted to co-finance the project with a Dutch partner,’ explained Franz Kollitsch, founder and CEO of Invester United Benefits. But the Dutch economy and financing markets were still recovering from the financial crisis and not yet ready for such an investment, he noted.
When approached at a later stage, ABN Amro Bank and Rabobank appeared not only willing to take part but to take on the full amount of the senior loan and the deal was clinched 6-8 months ago. ‘It has become a pure Dutch solution,’ said Kollitsch.
Besides the €180 mln senior loan, the financing for the project consists of a mezzanine tranche in the form of a listed German bond and an equity portion, provided by family offices and German pension funds.
Third-tallest tower
At 110 metres, the hotel will be the third-tallest tower in Amsterdam and have 580 rooms. It will be operated by Maritim, Germany’s largest owner-managed hotel group, on a 50-year lease. The hotel will house a congress centre with the capacity to accommodate up to 4,000 participants, making it the second-largest such venue in the city after the RAI exhibition and convention centre on its southern fringe.
‘The development will be the cornerstone of a vibrant new hotspot in the north of the city which will define the skyline of the northern bank of the IJ waterway,' said Markus Teufel, owner and CEO of IES Immobilien. Züblin Nederland, a subsidiary of listed Austrian construction group Strabag, has been contracted to lead the construction of the project.
The congress centre will add much-needed space to Amsterdam’s undersupplied conference and convention market, according to Maritim’s owner and supervisory board chair Monika Gommolla. ‘Amsterdam ranks 11th on the list of cities hosting the most congresses in Europe, but the potential for future growth is huge, given its cultural appeal, among other assets,’ she said. The economic boost for Amsterdam would be enormous, she added. ‘German research shows that congress-goers spend 17x more during their visit than the average visitor.’
Cooperation with RAI
Gommolla noted that Maritim would work together with the RAI organisation to attract more congresses and provide facilities and accommodation. Agreements have also been made with five other hotels on the IJ waterfront to accommodate extra numbers of congress delegates. The Y-Towers project is Maritim's first investment in the Netherlands.
The second 101-metre high tower will comprise 250 apartments over a gross floor area of 27,000 m2. Of these, 100 will be fully furnished long-stay service flats (up to a year) while the other 150 will be apartments for sale.
IES Immobilien and Invester United Benefits said they plan to initiate talks with potential end-investors at the Expo Real trade fair in Munich in the autumn. ‘A 50-year lease with such a strong covenant as Maritim makes the project a very attractive investment for a long-term investor,’ said Erwin Krause, founder of Invester United Benefits.
IES Immobilien-Projektentwicklung is an Austrian family-run company owned by Markus Teufel which specialises in real estate and urban development as well as in real estate investment consulting.
Vienna-based Invester United Benefits is an integrated real estate service provider group, which acts as investment, asset and development manager. It has €1 bn worth of investment projects in Central Europe with a focus on Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands.
Maritim is the largest owner-operated German hotel chain and is also active in Mauritius, Egypt, Turkey, Malta, Spain and China.
