New York-based Marathon Asset Management has acquired the World Port Center (WPC) in Rotterdam from an investor consortium including Syntrus Achmea and a number of pension funds, PropertyEU has learned.
Marathon paid nearly €105.2 mln for the 32-storey tower, which was designed by Sir Norman Foster and is one of the tallest buildings in the Dutch port city at 123 metres.
Located on the south bank of the river Maas at Wilhelminakade 955 near Hotel New York, the WPC tower comprises around 35,500 m2 of office space and has 500 underground parking spaces. It was built by ING Real Estate in 1999 at a cost of around €45 mln.
The main tenant is the Rotterdam Port Authority, which occupies over 25,000 m2.
JLL acted for the vendor, while Savills represented the buyer, according to market sources.
Dutch office spree
The deal is the latest in a string of Dutch office transactions by Marathon. At the beginning of the year the US asset manager acquired the Mercury portfolio of six assets in four cities for an undisclosed sum. The deal was carried out through a fund managed by Marathon's UK-based business, MCAP Global Finance.
The vendor in that transaction was asset manager MN Services, which was acting on behalf of Dutch pension funds PMT and BPFK.
Marathon’s MCAP business made a big splash in the Dutch real estate market in December 2015 by purchasing 14 office properties from a fund managed by Bouwinvest Real Estate Investment Management. Two months later MCAP acquired the 20-storey Zuidtoren office building in Hoofddorp for just over €40 mln.
In April 2016 MCAP acquired a 14-property portfolio from Credit Suisse for an estimated €380 mln. About 85% of the 140,000 m2 portfolio measured in m2 is located in the Randstad conurbation, which encompasses the cities of Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam and Utrecht.
