ING Real Estate Investment Management announces the acquisition of Ociopia Shopping Centre in Orihuela, Alicante, Spain, for approximately €50 million. The scheme is the seventh income-producing asset in the portfolio of ING Retail Property Partnership Southern Europe. The asset was acquired from Spanish developer Grupo Inerzia.
The two-level, open air shopping centre has a total gross lettable area of 26,480 m² and comprises 72 units. It is situated in a prime city centre location near the municipal buildings and university. Fashion anchors Inditex Group and C&A Kids plus household anchor Master Cadena occupy the ground floor. The upper level houses a Sabeco supermarket, a gymnasium, a UCC cinema as well as a number of foodcourt units. Two stand alone units, scheduled to be operative by 2008, will be built in the coming months. The shopping center is serviced by 1,200 parking spaces, which are free of charge.
The Orihuela catchment area totals some 161,000 people, 63% of whom are located within a ten-minute drive from the shopping center. Orihuela has excellent market dynamics with the population growing 28% during the period 2000-2004. The shopping center will form the centrepoint of Orihuela's new future urban configuration, which includes residential developments of some 3,000 houses.
Ociopia reinforces the Iberian presence of the Fund following its purchase of Urbil, Forum Viseu and Forum Coimbra. Fund Director Florencio Beccar said: "We have leveraged our network to secure off-market deals in the current challenging Iberian market. Ociopia provides strong investment fundamentals and is income-producing. We are delighted with the result". The ING Retail Property Partnership Southern Europe has a target size of €1.2 billion to be invested in retail properties in Portugal, Spain and Italy.
Source: ING Real Estate
