Private Israeli developer-investor Omnam Investment Group has acquired an office building in Amsterdam from a fund managed by Aberdeen Asset Management.

Private Israeli developer-investor Omnam Investment Group has acquired an office building in Amsterdam from a fund managed by Aberdeen Asset Management.

Omnam purchased the property, known as The Dam and located in Amsterdam Sloterdijk to the west of the city, for €15.5 mln, according to the Dutch land registry. Including redevelopment costs of around €85 mln, the total investment in the property amounts to around €100 mln.

Omnam plans to convert the property, which previously housed telecoms group KPN’s offices and had been on the market for four years, into a hotel to be operated under the mid-market Park Inn by Radisson brand owned by the Rezidor Hotel Group. There are more than 160 Park Inn by Radisson hotels in EMEA, including one at Amsterdam Schiphol airport.

The 428-room hotel at The Dam will comprise around 4,000 m2 of conference facilities and a 1,000 m2 ballroom. Redevelopment and refurbishment work on the building will start this week.

The deal comes two years after a similar transaction for the property involving the Rezidor Hotel group stranded. Under the terms of that deal, which had been signed and sealed, the German bank which was due to provide the financing withdrew because it wanted to run with the highest bidder, said hotel director Dirk Bakker of Colliers International which brokered the latest deal and advised the vendor, Aberdeen’s German fund Europe 1.

Legal advice for the transaction with Omnan was provided by CMS (for the vendor) and Lexence Advocaten (for the buyer).

The plans for the property are slightly more ambitious than were envisaged under the previous scenario two years ago: besides conversion of the main 28,000 m2 building, another 13,000 m2 will be transformed into an entertainment centre with à la carte restaurant, turning the property into a full-service congress hotel.

CEO David Zisser of Omnam Investment Group said the project will make the Amsterdam Sloterdijk area more dynamic and serve as a ‘catalyst’ for the further development of the Teleport area, originally earmarked in the 1980s as a district to house telecommunications companies.