In a joint venture with Homburg Investment Inc., the property fund company DEGI Deutsche Gesellschaft für Immobilienfonds mbH is making its first investment in Canada. For its DEGI INTERNATIONAL fund, the company acquires an office project featuring a total area of around 57,900 m² for around 253 mln.
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The Homburg-Harris Centre.
The "Homburg-Harris Centre" will upon completion rank among the most modern and advanced office buildings in the central business district (CBD) of Calgary. After completion of the building complex, the regional proportion of the fund's properties outside Europe will rise to around 14 %. "In the years ahead, we are aiming to increase this proportion continously up to 40 %", says DEGI's Managing Director Malcolm R. Morgan. The seller of the office project is the international property and project development company Homburg Invest Inc., which as joint venture partner owns a 10 % holding in the newly established property holding company, and will by its Canadian subsidiary be handling local management for the property.
Canada's economy is deriving particular benefit from the raw material boom observable for some years, since the nation possesses the world's second-largest oil reserves after Saudi-Arabia. Canada is the world's third-biggest producer of natural gas, after the USA and Russia. With a population of one million, Calgary is the centre of Canada's oil and gas industry, while at the same time housing many different service sector businesses. The positive environment is reflected doubly in Canada's third-biggest office market, with a total area of 4.4 million m²: Calgary has the lowest vacancy ratio, at 1.5%, and at the same time the highest growth rate among North-America's major cities. Malcolm Morgan announces: "Further investments in Canada are currently being prepared."
The Homburg-Harris Centre is situated in an extremely central location, Downtown Central Core, with very convenient links to urban public transport. The building complex consists of two linked office towers. The office space of 20,000 m² in the ten-story Tower 1 has already been let in its entirety to the energy company Penn West Petroleum Ltd. before the tower is completed in January 2008. The retailing areas on the ground floor will be used as a restaurant. For the 20-story Tower 2, completion is scheduled for 2009. The Homburg-Harris Centre also features underground parking for 400 cars. The purchase price will be paid in instalments as construction work progresses.
Source: Allianz Global Investors
