The new European real estate business of US insurer and financial services giant USAA has secured its first investment and signed on the dotted line at EXPO REAL.

The new European real estate business of US insurer and financial services giant USAA has secured its first investment and signed on the dotted line at EXPO REAL.

RealCo-Europe, which set up an Amsterdam office in June this year, is acquiring a 33,955 m2 logistics warehouse, a 4,080 m2 multi-story office building and almost 8 hectares of adjacent land in the Dutch city of Utrecht.

The warehouse facility was developed in 2012 by Somerset Real Estate on behalf of logistics provider Kuehne + Nagel. Somerset will develop a new 28,557 m2 logistics facility on the land plot.

RealCo was represented in this transaction by brokerage firm 3Stone Real Estate, and by CMS Derks Star Busmann as legal counsel.

David Buck, head of European Operations at RealCo Europe, said this was the first of many transactions to come. ‘We started the process on the Utrecht deal in June and it has really come together in the last 30 days,’ Buck told PropertyEU. ‘It has not always been an easy process and so we are very pleased to be complete and sign it in Munich. As a person in the deal involved said, “it hasn’t always been an easy process but it is often the case that from difficult births the most beautiful babies come into the world'.’

Commenting on Realco's move into Europe, Buck added, 'We look at markets under-served by capital, and we want to finance logistics development in Europe because it is an under-served market. We have been solely focused on the US for most of our existence but this is now changing as part of our expansion. It is not a chasing yield exercise, it is about diversifying the portfolio.'