Victory Advisors, a London-based private equity firm, has submitted the acquisition of the Atrium office building in Amsterdam as a candidate for PropertyEU's Deal of the Decade Awards.
'The Atrium was not the largest transaction ever, nor is it the tallest tower or the most luxurious hotel or shopping centre,' according to Erik Moresco, a former managing director at Blackstone who founded Victory Advisors in 2009. 'It is, however, a true landmark icon and a truly fascinating transaction that has incorporated almost every possible aspect or challenge that a real estate investment could have.'
Victory Advisors bought the Atrium from Irish investor Quinlan Private (now Avestus Capital Partners) and the price was reportedly in the region of €100 mln.
Located in the Zuidas (South Axis) business and residential district of the Dutch capital, the outdated 34,000 m2 office building was acquired by Victory Advisors in 2013, 'during one of the darkest periods of the worst economic crisis in modern history'. The building was riddled with technical problems and a mutinous tenant base that was leaving in droves. At the time, the car park was also due to be abolished to make way for construction of the so-called Dock Model at the Zuidas under which the public transport lines and the motorway will be taken underground.
'Facing a State-sponsored expropriation of one of its most important operational assets and believed in the market to be outdated and unable to compete with modern products, the Atrium was far from an obvious investment at the time,' Moresco says.
But in the following three years since the acquisition, all of the major challenges faced by the building have been solved and it is now on its way to being transformed and expanded into a state-of-the-art full-service complex spanning some nearly 60,000 m2, he says.
____________
PropertyEU has now collected over 80 submissions for the Deal of the Decade Awards. In the coming weeks, our project team will be drawing up a shortlist for the different categories ahead of a readers’ vote in the autumn. There will also be a formal jury vote. The Deal of the Decade Awards will be presented during a ceremony in Amsterdam in December.
Do you have a deal that you would like to submit for the Deal of the Decade Awards? For more information, go to: propertyeu.info/content/awards or mail irina@propertyeu.info
