Mitiska REIM has acquired two new retail assets - Parque Mondego in Coimbra and Focus Park Canidelo in Greater Porto. This continues Mitiska REIM’s European expansion, which successfully entered the Spanish, German, French and Portuguese markets over the past 16 months.
Parque Mondego, located just outside the city of Coimbra next to the main Lisbon-Porto motorway, is currently one of the largest retail parks in Portugal, with a gross leasable area of more than 29,000 m². It consists of 23 retail units, with tenants such as Decathlon, Bricomarche?, Deborla, Minipreço and Ra?dio Popular, and parking for 1,300 cars.
Focus Park Canidelo is an urban convenience retail park located in the Greater Porto area. It has a gross leasable area of 8,400 m², comprising 4 retail units, anchored by a Jumbo supermarket, with retail brands Seaside and Espaço Casa, and a Mais Fit gym. The site has parking for 466 cars.
Both retail parks have been acquired by Mitiska REIM’s First Retail International 2 fund (FRI2), which successfully closed at €223m at the end of 2016.
Axel Despriet, CEO of Mitiska REIM, commented: “We are delighted to have entered Portugal, a market where we are now seeing good momentum in respect to both the economic cycle and real estate market. In the aftermath of the economic crisis, a number of retailers and investors held back from Portugal. We are now seeing precisely the opposite trend, with real estate transactions at near record highs, and retailers and investors flowing back in, drawn by the improved economic environment and attractive risk/return opportunities.”
Luc Geuten, Executive Chairman of Mitiska REIM, added: “When we launched our FRI2 fund just over a year ago, one of our goals was to capitalise on the retail park opportunities we saw in the more mature Western European markets. Today’s announcement is another step in the delivery of these plans, and further consolidates our position as the leading specialist investor in the retail park sector across Europe.”
Parque Mondego was acquired from CBRE Global Investors, and Focus Park Canidelo was acquired from Temprano Capital Partners.
