Union Investment spends EUR 62m on Helsinki office project

Hamburg-based real estate investor Union Investment has acquired Eventes Business Garden office development in the Helsinki metropolitan area for EUR 62.3 mln. The 14,133 m² property is fully pre-let on a long lease and is being contributed to Union Investment's open-ended real estate fund UniImmo: Deutschland.

Eventes Business Garden will be completed in mid-2014 and will serve as the new headquarters of Outotecj, a listed technology, engineering and plant construction company.

Union Investment is forward funding the project by Finnish developer Peab. The vendor is aiming to obtain US LEED 'Gold' green building certification for the complex.

The eight-storey development is situated in the established office submarket of Espoo-West, around 12 kilometres west of Helsinki’s business district and easily accessible by motorway. The location is within walking distance of Iso Omena, Finland's fourth largest shopping centre with around 49,000 m² of retail space. The Matinkylä metro station is currently under construction next to the centre, with completion scheduled for 2015.

In a statement, Union Investment said that prime properties with long-term tenants in investment locations with core ratings are highly prized by risk-averse investors in the current climate. 'Continuing strong economic growth in the Helsinki metropolitan region means we are increasingly interested in entering the market via development projects,' said Volker Noack, member of the management board of Union Investment Real Estate.

Union Investment's open-ended real estate funds currently hold real estate assets valued at around EUR 240 mln in Finland. The fund manager said that further acquisitions in the Helsinki metropolitan region are being explored to complement the ongoing development at Eventes Business Garden.