Barings Real Estate Advisers, part of Barings LLC, one of the world’s largest diversified real estate investment managers, announces that it has acquired a fully let Grade A office building in Berlin “Mitte” as part of a European Core investment strategy from Westbrook Partners. The purchase price was undisclosed.
The 18,900 m² office building at the corner of Chausseestrasse 23 and Zinnowitzer Strasse is fully let on a long term lease to Vattenfall GmbH, a Swedish state owned energy company with around 20,000 employees with operations in Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, UK and Finland.
The building is located in the middle of a transitioning and diversified quarter close to the new secret service headquarters. There are a vibrant mixture of businesses and inner city leisure facilities in the much desired “Mitte” district. The district is benefiting from ongoing improvements and developments within the local neighbourhood.
It has excellent communications by road with the local public transport connections (S-Bahn/U-Bahn and Tram) as well as by rail with links to Berlin´s central railway station, only a couple of minutes away.
Christoph Wittkop, Head of Germany at Barings Real Estate Advisers Europe, said: “Berlin is a high conviction market for us. Despite the robust market environment you need to assess the micro location and characteristics of the asset to properly evaluate the risk and return. With our strong local team led by Nick Puschkasch, we all are convinced of the strength of this location and this particular asset. We have a positive view of the Berlin office market which is supported by our in-house research team”.
Ruben Herrmann, Managing Principal at Westbrook Partners, said: “Following our acquisition in 2016, our early asset management success and the strong investment market environment offered an attractive opportunity to sell. We are very pleased with the successful and smooth transaction with Barings”.
BNP Paribas Real Estate, Grossmann & Berger and Hogan Lovells advised the seller. The buyer was advised by DLA Piper.
