German open-ended fund manager Union Investment has acquired Rathaus-Galerie shopping centre in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia from Credit Suisse Asset Management (CSAM).
Developed for about €200 mln, Rathaus-Galerie opened in the city of Leverkusen in 2010 and offers around 36,300 m2 of retail space. The vendor is CSAM's open-ended real estate fund CS Euroreal.
The transaction also includes an adjacent office and retail property comprising almost 2,200 m2 that is directly linked to Rathaus-Galerie. The nearly fully-let properties are part of the Melody portfolio, for which Union Investment signed a purchase agreement in December 2016. Union Investment will be adding Rathaus-Galerie to the portfolio of its open-ended real estate fund UniImmo: Europa, which is marketed via the Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken banking network. This will see the fund's retail property share rise to just under 30%.
Details of the purchase price were not disclosed. However, a value for the property was cited by Karl-Josef Schneiders, managing director of CSAM KAG. 'The sale of one of the largest properties in the CS Euroreal fund with a current market value of just under €220 mln takes us a major step closer to winding up the fund,' he said.
'Excellent' fit
Henrike Waldburg, head of retail investment management at Union Investment, said Rathaus-Galerie was an 'excellent' fit with the fund manager's existing shopping centre portfolio. 'In addition to the dominant and long-established retail location in central Leverkusen, the strong tenant mix of German and international chains makes Rathaus-Galerie an attractive investment for our European fund,' Waldburg added.
The centre contains a total of 121 stores. The biggest retail occupiers in the mall are H&M, C&A, Saturn and Thalia. The City of Leverkusen also uses some 5,000 m2 of Rathaus-Galerie, which is within walking distance of the main railway station. The property is also notable for its high level of design and construction quality, for which it recently received DGNB Gold certification. After the change of ownership, the centre will continue to be managed by ECE Projektmanagement.
The real estate arm of Credit Suisse Asset Management has been operating in the German property market for over 20 years and has real estate assets under management of some €40.5 bn worldwide at end-February 2017.
Union Investment was advised on the deal by CMS and JLL; Credit Suisse was advised by Eastdil Secured and iMallinvest.
