HSH Nordbank is providing an approximately €61 million ($86.5 million) credit facility for the construction of an exclusive residential tower in Dallas, Texas. The project will be part of the spectacular 'Victory Park' urban development in the Texan metropolis. The borrower is a joint venture between German fund initiator US Treuhand, U.S. based real estate developer Hillwood and U.K. based Yoo.
Artist impression of the 'The House by Starck & Yoo'
The construction project, a planned 28-story building called 'The House by Starck & Yoo' will be comprised of approximately 147 exclusive residential condominiums and 2,800 m² of streetfront retail and restaurant space. Scheduled to open in 2008, the residential tower owes its name to Yoo, who operate under the creative direction of Philippe Starck and is well-known for its residential design.
Located in the heart of Dallas, Victory Park is one of the country's most significant and innovative master-planned urban communities. The project, which is the subject of joint investment by US Treuhand's closed-end U.S. real estate fund XVI and Hillwood, has a total volume of approximately €2.1 billion ($3 billion), making it one of the
largest inner-city re-development projects in the history of the United States. Once completed as planned, Victory Park will contain about 900 luxury apartments and residential condominiums, major hotels, nightlife venues, distinctive dining, reputation retail, Class A office space and the American Airlines Center. This modern sporting arena is the home venue of the well-known NBA team The Dallas Mavericks and its German star, Dirk Nowitzki.
"It gives us great pleasure to assist in such a significant and exceptional project development in the United States," says Bernhard Visker, Head of HSH Nordbank's Real Estate segment. "We consider the concept to be very promising and expect the overall project to raise the profile of the city of Dallas considerably."
Victory Park continues a trend that is observable in many big U.S. cities. People no longer want to work in pure office zones, such as downtown areas, and live in far distant suburbs. Instead, there is growing demand for typical mixed-use areas, following the example of European cities, consisting of living, working, shopping, entertainment zones, bars, restaurants and sport venues.
Since 1995, US Treuhand has been a non-captive initiator of closed-end U.S. real estate funds. The company specializes exclusively on the U.S. property market. In the area of private equity ventures on the property market it is the market leader in Germany. Working in collaboration with U.S. partners, the company has so far invested more than USD three billion. The building project being financed is one of eight properties forming part of UST XVI Victory Park. Joint venture partner Hillwood is one of the ten largest project development companies in the U.S. and is owned by the Ross Perot family, who also reside in Dallas.
Source: HSH Nordbank
