Hines and Universal-Investment acquire Royal Exchange (GB)

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Hines, the international real estate firm, and German investment company Universal-Investment have acquired Royal Exchange in Manchester city centre from Trinistar Manchester, a joint venture between Starwood Capital Group and Trinity IM.

 

The acquisition was made for an institutional real estate fund on the platform of Universal-Investment, administered and managed on behalf of Bayerische Versorgungskammer (BVK), Germany’s largest pension scheme group, with approximately €62bn assets under management. This deal is part of its €1.3bn investment mandate from BVK which is targeting prime high street retail assets across Europe.

 

In addition to housing the 700-seat Royal Exchange theatre, the 24,526m² building incorporates 7,525m² of retail and leisure space and 11,241m² of office space. The retail and leisure space is home to a range of tenants including Molton Brown, Starbucks, Swarovski, L’Occitane and Hotel Chocolat. The office space is currently being comprehensively refurbished to create highly specified modern space, of which 7,618m² is available to lease.

 

Sharon Bloodworth, Director of Retail Asset Management, said: “Following the recent upgrade of the building’s façade and the extensive remodeling of the Royal Exchange Arcade, we will continue to reposition the retail space to provide a high quality and niche retail environment to compliment the wider Manchester retail offer.”

 

Bilfinger GVA advised Hines, MMX and Commercial Properties acted for Starwood and Trinity IM.

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