ECE retail fund buys City-Passage in Bielefeld

Germany's ECE Projektmanagement has confirmed the purchase of the City-Passage shopping centre in Bielefeld, in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe region. Financial details were kept confidential.

The purchase - which is being made for the group's ECE European Prime Shopping Centre Fund - involves 32,000 m² of retail area across 44 shops. The vendors are RWI 40 and RWI 43, two funds managed by WestLB's Westfonds unit.

Built in 1977, the property is anchored by a 20,000-m² Galeria Kaufhof department store and also includes some 5,600 m² of office accommodation, 1,300 m² of catering facilities and 560 parking spaces. ECE will take over the management and leasing of the centre from January 2011.

'The City-Passage fits perfectly into the portfolio of our fund. It offers great opportunities for modernisation as well as significant value increase potential and we will continue to invest in the asset,' commented Volker Kraft, managing director of ECE Real Estate Partners.

Launched in the summer of 2011, ECE European Prime Shopping Centre Fund is the first pan-European real estate fund focusing on the acquisition of existing shopping centres in Europe with value-creation potential. The fund, which is managed by a newly established fund management company called ECE Real Estate Partners, has already acquired five malls including the 35,000-m² SternCenter mall in Potsdam, the LindenCenter in Berlin and the 43,000-m² Galeria Kaskada in Stettin.