Peakside Capital, a specialist European real estate private equity firm, announces that it has successfully completed the disposal of the Opernpassagen building, a 21,000 m² retail, office and storage facility in Cologne, on behalf of its client, the Gustav Group, to a private investor who will hold the asset long term.
Located in the city centre of Cologne, between the pedestrianized Breite Strasse and the Cologne Opera House, the property was originally acquired in 2007. Since then, the asset has been redeveloped into a commercial building, comprising a mixture of retail, office and storage space, as well as more than 550 parking spaces.
Peakside advised Gustav on strategy for the building and subsequently implemented, alongside the centre manager, ECE, a number of active asset management initiatives to reposition the property and dramatically improve its performance. As a result, revenues have increased by 16% from acquisition until August 2012.
The decision to partly close the shopping arcade and restructure its retail units led to the major achievement of adding ProMarkt's approx. 3,500 m² flagship store to the property. Prior to the disposal, a number of new high quality tenants were signed to further improve the asset's tenant mix, in addition to the renewal of important leases with existing tenants, further increasing the attractiveness of the asset.
Peakside was advised by Olswang on this transaction with BNP & CBRE acting as brokers.
Boris Schran, founding partner of Peakside, commented: "This transaction in many ways typifies the Peakside approach, through an active asset management strategy we successfully repositioned a challenged asset and transformed it into a thriving part of the Cologne City centre.
"We have consistently improved the asset since 2006, securing premium tenants and enhancing the tenant mix. In addition, Peakside has managed to grow rental income on the property by 16% and achieved an attractive exit price for the benefit of our client."
Source: FTI Consulting
