PCP sells Cologne mall for EUR 70m

British Prime Commercial Properties (PCP) has sold the City-Center Chorweiler shopping centre in Cologne for around EUR 70 mln to a property company in which the German Otto family holds shares. The shopping centre is operated by ECE, which is headed by Alexander Otto.

Hamburg-based ECE and Jones Lang LaSalle acted as advisers on the transaction. ECE will remain responsible for the centre's leasing and long-term management in the future.

The City-Center Chorweiler in Cologne was opened in 1976 and has been managed by ECE since 1989. The centre was upgraded between 1994 and 1996 and provides 27,500 m² of sales area over two levels as well as more than 1,400 car parking spaces.

The sale follows hard on the heels of PCP's disposal of the Billstedt-Center mall in Hamburg to Deutsche Euroshop for EUR 160 mln. That transaction, which is expected to be completed on 1 January 2011, reflects a net initial yield of 6%.

Billstedt-Center is fully let and provides 40,000 m² of retail area over two levels. It includes 110 shops, a hypermarket, a specialist consumer electronics retailer (Media Markt), three fashion houses (C&A, TK Maxx and H&M), as well as a Karstadt department store, owned by a third party. The complex also comprises 3,500 m² of residential and office space as well as parking for 1,500 cars.