German fund manager Union Investment Real Estate has acquired First Rotterdam, a new 128-metre high tower in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam.
The investment volume was not disclosed but PropertyEU Research estimates it was in the region of €133 mln. The vendors are Dutch developer Maarsen Group and the real estate arm of Dutch bank Rabo.
First Rotterdam is part of the Rotterdam Central District and faces the city's central train station. The building comprises 40,000 m2 of offices, 400 m2 of cafe and restaurant space and 185 parking places.
Union Investment board member Christoph Schumacher said the Hamburg-based investor was delighted with the acquisition of the tower which has been described as a new landmark on Rotterdam's skyline. 'It helps to reduce the age of our existing portfolio and also meets our sustainability requirements in exemplary fashion,' he added.
First Rotterdam is the new headquarters of law firm NautaDutilh and Dutch asset manager Robeco. NautaDutilh has 240 staff working from the building, while Robeco relocated 900 employees to the building at the beginning of May. DTZ Zadelhoff, the property adviser that was not part of the merger between DTZ and Cushman & Wakefield, also has its Rotterdam office in the building.
Union Investment said it part funded the transaction by reinvesting some of the proceeds from the €1 bn pan-European Aqua portfolio sale in Rotterdam on behalf of its institutional real estate fund UniInstitutional Real Estate. After selling the Las Palmas office building, its only property in Rotterdam, in January 2016 as part of the Aqua portfolio, Union Investment re-entered the market by acquiring the First Rotterdam development project for the fund. Union Investment secured the First Rotterdam office tower at an early stage by way of forward funding
Law firm Loyens & Loeff advised Rabo Real Estate in the transaction, with property adviser DRS Makelaars and law firm Van Boekel acting for Union Investment.
