Union Investment buys in German cities after raising €100m

Fund manager Union Investment has bought two properties in Stuttgart and Berlin for its UniInstitutional German Real Estate fund.

The Tübinger Carré, a 16,744 m2 shopping centre in Stuttgart’s Christophstraße, was acquired for a reported €50 mln from a consortium led by Andreas Gurgiel. The property was renovated in 2014 and is anchored to outdoor specialist retailer Globetrotter with an outstanding lease term of 17 years.

Pergamon Palais, on Berlin’s Georgenstraße, was built in 2011 for €50 mln and contains 6232 m2 of lettable space, 86% of which is taken up by offices occupied by Humboldt University, plus eight residential apartments on the upper two storeys. The vendor, HIH Hamburgische Handlung, developed the site for a Warburg-Henderson Spezialfonds.

In February, Union Investments Real Estate raised an additional €100 mln to fund the two new acquisitions. The UniInstitutional portfolio now comprises nine properties worth a total of €400 mln.

Managing director Christoph Schumacher said: ‘Demand for our latest real estate products is at an unprecedentedly high level. We expect the fund to reach the €500 mln barrier by the end of the year.’