An educational fund managed by Next Generation Invest has acquired an educational property on the Neue Balan campus in Munich from Catella Real Estate.
Catella divested the asset on behalf of the Catella Max mutual fund to a Luxembourg special alternative investment fund of Next Generation Invest.
The property at Claudius-Keller-Straße 7 is located in the east of Munich, near the up-and-coming Werksviertel. It comprises 6,704 m2 of lettable space over five floors.
The Neue Balan campus is a modern, sustainable office campus with around 200,000 m2 of rental space. Numerous companies are located on the site, as well as shopping facilities, a gym and a publicly accessible 50 m pool.
The office building, which was built in 1956, was extensively renovated in the course of the campus development in 2010 and expanded specifically for university and school operations. In 2017, Catella added a high-quality storey with an additional staggered storey.
In this context, Catella succeeded in obtaining a long-term lease to two educational institutions. The tenants of the property are the Munich Adult Education Centre and the IU (International University of Applied Sciences).
'The modern campus infrastructure offers an optimal learning and research environment and creates space for informal encounters and creative collaboration,' said Tanja Volksheimer, head of fund management at NEXT Generation Invest.
Lukas Deubzer, senior investment manager at Catella, said: 'During our holding period of about ten years, the site has developed extremely positively.
'By adding the storey and re-letting it to two renowned tenants, we were able to significantly increase the value of the asset and ensure a stable cash flow in the long term.
'Following the comprehensive repositioning from a single to a multi-tenant property, we have now been able to successfully sell the property and now realise the increase in value through the measures implemented in recent years in a challenging market environment.'
Fabian Herrmann, Catella portfolio manager, added: 'After achieving very good ongoing returns for our investors with this property over the years and realising further potential through the increase in 2017, we have now decided to shift our focus to new investment opportunities.'
Next Generation Invest was advised by Fieldfisher on legal and tax matters. The property was marketed in a co-mandate by BNP Paribas Real Estate and Cushman & Wakefield.
Catella was legally advised on the transaction by DLA Piper, while the tax advice was provided by WTS and the technical preparation of the sale, including ESG review, was provided by Brand Berger real estate consulting.
