The real estate fund management arm of Swiss bank UBS has announced the acquisition of the Wankdorf Center in Berne, Switzerland for an undisclosed sum. The vendor is Cologne-based Wankdorf-Center Bern Dr. Karl Bartel.
The real estate fund management arm of Swiss bank UBS has announced the acquisition of the Wankdorf Center in Berne, Switzerland for an undisclosed sum. The vendor is Cologne-based Wankdorf-Center Bern Dr. Karl Bartel.
The purchase of the mixed-use scheme was made on behalf of UBS' Sima fund, with a 66% share, as well as the Swissreal property fund and the UBS Foundation for the Investment of Pension Fund Assets.
The transaction involves the Wankdorf-Center shopping centre, plus the car park and all office, school and surgery space within the Wankdorf stadium complex. The football arena itself does not form part of the transaction. The scheme was built in 2005 by a partnership of Coop, Suva and Winterthur Life, which sold it a few months after opening to the German investor Karl Bartel, part of property group Ebertz & Partner. Construction of the scheme represented an investment of some CHF 300 mln (EUR 250 mln).
'The Wankdorf district of Berne is a focus for development, and this transaction represents yet another great opportunity for UBS real estate investment products to invest there,' UBS said in a statement. Riccardo Boscardin, a director at UBS Global Asset Management added that 'the investment fits very well into the group's long-term real estate investment strategy'.
The management of the centre will remain unchanged, UBS added.
