The mandate to sell the Elbtower, the poster child for Signa and Germany's real estate woes, kicked off this week.
Costar reported that CBRE has been hired as advisor by the administrator to the Signa Prime Select company which stopped work on the 105,000 m2 development last November.
One broker with knowledge of the move said the process to pick an advisor was very limited. CBRE declined to comment.
The broker added that the situation 'is super political'. The city of Hamburg has a right to buy back the development which was intended as an elegant gateway (Far right in photo montage) to its hugely successful Hafencity project, developing its harbour district.
Citycon, the listed owner of Nordic shopping centres, announced it intends to sell 21 of its smaller urban assets to focus on large malls. And in a third significant potential sale, private equity firm KSL Capital Partners, a specialist in opportunistic hotel investing, was reported to be sounding out possible buyers for a portfolio of 33 mid-market hotels.
Among the deals completed, BT said it had agreed to sell a true London icon - the slim BT Tower which is the only tall building in the heart of the West End - for £275 mln. The buyer is MCR Hotels of the US, which has converted other unusual buildings into hotels, such as the TWA Flight Centre at New York's John F Kennedy Airport.
The two largest deals tracked were both recapitalisations, with Starwood buying into an Ireland/UK data company and Santander into Spanish hotels. Deka made its second acquisition in as many weeks: following its purchase of a Notting Hill Hotel last week, it unveiled a €160m French logistics deal for the Europa fund.
Recently completed loans include another very large bilateral facility from Cheyne Capital, this time to Dominus for two London student housing developments.
We also track two funds raising capital.
