Karlin RE enters Europe with UK office buy

US property investor Karlin Real Estate has kicked off a $1 bn (€0.7 bn) investment drive in Europe with the purchase of an office building in the eastern UK city of Peterbrorough.

The fully occupied building, Worldwide House, provides around 169,931 sq ft (16,000 m2) of space and was acquired from Glanmore Fund Advisors for £16 mln (€18.5 mln).

The acquisition is Karlin Real Estate's first in Europe where it plans to invest up to $1 bn in the coming years.

'The current European real estate market closely parallels what we saw in the US a few years ago,' said David Cohen, Karlin Asset Management’s CEO. 'Valuations are being affected by the lack of financing, particularly in the secondary markets, which is similar to what we experienced in the US. This has created a window of opportunity for us to invest up to $1 bn in select institutional quality assets in the UK and other key European markets at a very compelling basis.'

Worldwide House is a four-storey building constructed in 1975 and renovated in 1996. It is located in Thorpe Wood Business Park in Peterborough, a growing satellite city around 120 km north of London.

Worldwide House is currently 100% leased through 2021 to Travelex Limited, the world's largest non-bank foreign exchange business.

Karlin Real Estate is a subsidiary of Karlin Asset Management, the Los Angeles-based investment firm with more than $1.5 bn in unleveraged capital. Besides property and land holdings, the company also has a bridge real estate lending platform that has deployed more than $300 mln in debt financing.