US REIT acquires Cisco HQ in Amsterdam for €88m

New York-listed REIT Global Net Lease has acquired the European headquarters of Cisco Systems in Amsterdam for €88 mln, PropertyEU has learned.

Moor Park Capital, acting as European service partner for GNL's two non-traded unlisted REIT vehicles, has completed the acquisition from Dutch banking group ING.

The 46,000 m2 property at 13-23 Haarlerbergweg in the southeast of Amsterdam will be held by the second two net-lease REITs. The investment volume of €88 mln is recorded with the Dutch land registry.

GNL focuses on sale-and-leaseback transactions in the US, UK, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland. The firm had €2.3 bn of assets under management at end-2014.

This is the second time the 11-building scheme in Amsterdam has traded within two years.

Cisco, the international IT networking group, developed the property as its European headquarters during the first internet boom at the end of the 1990s. Following the bursting of the IT bubble in 2001, Cisco found the property was too big for its needs and was forced to sub-let space to other tenants.

Half the total space was vacant when Cisco sold the complex to ING for €42 mln last year. The transaction was concluded on the basis the networking group would continue to lease 11,000 m2 for five years. After that date ING, which is moving its IT department to the building, will absorb the space currently being used by Cisco and other shorter leases held by other tenants.

ING has now sold the complex to Moor Park/GNL after agreeing a 10-year lease contract on the full 46,000 m2. CBRE advised ING in the transaction, while Cushman & Wakefield advised the buyer.

Bank moves home
ING is re-organising its space requirements and selling some buildings as part of its demerger from insurance business Nationale-Nederlanden (NN). Like other banking groups ING is taking steps to reduce the volume of it own real estate on its balance sheet.

Earlier in July ING confirmed that it intends to vacate its 50,000 m2 Amsterdamse Poort headquarters in the Bijlmer district and that it is having a new 24,000 m2 complex built practically around the corner at Frankemaheerd. An existing 40,000 m2 property will be demolished to make way for the new headquarters.

ING has committed itself to looking for new tenants for Amsterdamse Poort. The sprawling complex is commonly referred to as the 'Sand Castle' thanks to its special brick, quirky anthroposophical design incorporating 10 towers connected by a 350-metre long walkway and sloping walls.