Industry News

BNP Paribas Real Estate (BNPPRE) has appointed Michael Umfreville to lead a new team focused on the leasing and land acquisitions of data centres across the UK. Umfreville, who has enjoyed a successful career at BNPPRE in the city office leasing team, will expand his remit to focus on data centres within the firm’s alternatives division. Alongside co-ordination of the firm’s expertise in the sector, he will head up a niche team to support with aspects such as land and...

Real estate advisor CBRE has announced the appointment of Richard Bashford as a senior director in its UK Retail Investment team. His new role will encompass all aspects of Retail Investment, with an emphasis on the national high street, out-of-town and retail repurposing. He will work on projects throughout the UK but will be based in CBRE’s Bristol office. The appointment follows CBRE’s recent agreement to acquire CWM, an independent retail and leisure property consultancy in the United Kingdom. CWM...

Advisor CBRE announced on Friday that it has agreed to acquire CWM, a major independent retail and leisure property consultancy in the United Kingdom. Financial details were kept confidential. Founded in 1992, CWM advises more than 60 leading retail brands in the UK, including Tommy Hilfiger, Hugo Boss, Pret A Manger and The Body Shop, as well as major London Estates, including Battersea Power Station, Covent Garden and Marylebone Village, and shopping centre and travel retail leasing work at Edinburgh...

German property firm Corestate has acquired the Fünf-Häuser-Quartier project known as "Neue Mitte" in the centre of the Dreieich district of Sprendlingen near Frankfurt for around EUR43 million. The seller and project developer is Schoofs Immobilien GmbH Frankfurt. The purchase was made for the Stadtquartiere I open-ended institutional fund, which was launched at the beginning of 2021 with a focus on urban development properties in the centres of German medium-sized and large cities. The target volume of the fund is...

German investment manager Union Investment has acquired a hotel in Barcelona, Spain, which opened in November 2018 under the Barcelona 1882 brand and will be converted to a Radisson Blu as part of the acquisition process. Financial details were not disclosed. The deal for the hotel, located close to the basilica of the Sagrada Familia, was struck on behalf of open-ended real estate fund Unilmmo: Europa. The vendor is Partners Group, a global private markets firm, acting on behalf of...

Garbe Industrial Real Estate has announced the acquisition of a 192,000 m2 plot of land in the municipality of Ludwigsau near Bad Hersfeld (Hesse, Germany) for an undisclosed amount. The project developer aims to build a logistics centre with a total area of up to 97.000 m2. The project will represent an investment of around EUR85 million. The site, which is ready for construction, is located in the Bad Hersfeld-Ludwigsau Enterprise Park, a roughly 840,000 m2 industrial estate in the...

Moorfield Group, the UK-focused real estate fund manager, on behalf of its Moorfield Real Estate Fund IV, has agreed to forward fund an 81 bed best-in-class co-living scheme near Ealing Broadway, West London, for GBP21 million. It represents Moorfield’s entry into the fast-growing London co-living sector, which is expected to be a beneficiary of demand from young professionals looking for affordable, high quality and flexible accommodation. The transaction is the first investment by a joint venture between Moorfield and Funding...

HIH Invest Real Estate GmbH (“HIH Invest”) just acquired a day nursery in Gelsenkirchen. The standing property will be added to the portfolio of the “Zukunft Invest” open-ended special AIF. It is a single-storey building with a lettable area of around 900 square metres that opened in 1994 and was expanded in 2012. The day nursery has a generously proportioned outdoor area on a plot of about 4,300 square metres. Lessee is the City of Gelsenkirchen on a fixed-term lease...

Global asset management firm Invesco has acquired a logistics warehouse facility in Helsingborg, Sweden, on behalf of a UK separate account client. Financial details were not disclosed. Invesco Real Estate handled the transaction, working with its local partner Scius. The asset, Grustaget 3, has been acquired in a sale-and-leaseback from Alpy AB. The tenant is Boxon Group, a packaging operator operating in the Nordics, Europe and Asia-Pacific. As part of the acquisition, Boxon Group has extended its lease by 15...