A joint investment vehicle of Swiss Life Asset Managers and Norges Bank Investment Management has sealed two major office acquisitions in Berlin and Paris for a total of just under €680 mln.
In Berlin, the two property investors have acquired the newly-built VoltAir office complex in the Mitte district from ABG Real Estate, in joint venture with Felix Gädeke. The purchase price amounts to €457 mln. Closing of the deal is expected for February 2023.
In Paris, Swiss Life and Norges have bought 86 Boulevard Haussmann, a prestigious Haussmannian building in the heart of the French capital, for €217 mln. The prime office building is located in the Central Business District of Paris and provides 11,000 m2 of space exclusively dedicated to office use. It has been fully leased since 2002. Closing is expected for December 2022.
Both acquisitions were made through an investment vehicle seeded with equity by both groups and managed by Swiss Life Asset Managers. The vehicle targets investments in Berlin and Paris with focus on prime locations and sizeable high-quality assets, predominantly with commercial use.
‘We are pleased to partner with an experienced and financially strong institutional investor with a long-term investment horizon. We are successfully leveraging our proprietary asset management portfolio strategy for third parties by launching this investment vehicle with a likeminded counterparty,’ commented Stefan Mächler, Group CIO at Swiss Life.
VoltAir
Covering an area of 6,500 m2, VoltAir is a landmark property with five separate entrances and two imposing lobbies that open out onto the spacious, verdant inner courtyard. The property comprises around 30,000 m2 of state-of-the-art rental space on the ground floor and seven upper storeys. The underground car park provides parking space for more than 90 vehicles.
Construction works started at the end of 2018 and completed this summer. VoltAir has been awarded a LEED “Gold” certificate and a WiredScore “Gold” certificate.
‘The sale of this outstanding landmark property in the challenging current market environment is testament to VoltAir’s top quality in terms of architecture, equipment, structure and sustainability – strong arguments in convincing first-class investment houses,’ said Ulrich Höller, managing partner at ABG Real Estate Group.
The sale follows the lease of a major portion of the property in July to a leading German listed biotech company which will move its representative office for the German capital to the landmark property. Another tenant for VoltAir is the market-leading international music publishing house Hal Leonhard. The asset is currently fully let.
BNP Paribas Real Estate and CBRE advised on the transaction. Legal and tax advice was provided by Wagensonner Rechtsanwälte and ALR Treuhand.
