Industry News

Impact investor Bridges Fund Management and UK developer HUB have acquired a £39 million (€44.6 million) commercial building in London to be repurposed into a residential scheme. The firms have acquired the 150 Minories building in Aldgate in a deal that represents the 12th for the pair and is the latest project as part of the office-to-residential repurposing strategy developed by the partnership’s HubCap platform. HubCap’s strategy is to revitalise underutilised areas of cities by identifying and converting suitable sites...

Greystar has secured a £96 million (€110 million) loan from AllianceBernstein’s European Commercial Real Estate Debt (ECRED) strategy to finance the acquisition and development of a residential project in the UK. The loan will fund the development of the Crown Trading Estate, a multifamily build-to-rent (BTR) project in Hayes, Greater London. The property once developed will comprise 318 residential units, along with a further include 89 affordable housing units, a commercial unit and over 10,000 square metres of amenity space...

A newly created clean-energy projects investment company majority owned by Generali Investments has bought a 249MW battery energy storage system (BESS) project in the UK for £210 million (€241 million). Sosteneo has agreed to buy the holding company of Sheaf Energy Park in Kent from Pacific Green Technologies. As part of the transaction, Sosteneo will provide a capital expenditure loan, which together with the senior debt facility, will fully fund the development and construction of Sheaf Energy Park BESS project...

M7 Real Estate, a European investor and asset manager, has sold 30 properties across the Netherlands, via 26 individual transactions, for a total of €109.1 million so far this year to a mix of institutional and local investors. The assets, encompassing 117,300 square metres, comprise 16 offices, 11 retail warehouses, two retail assets and one industrial warehouse. Since acquiring the assets between 2015 and 2019, M7 has undertaken a number of asset management initiatives, including letting vacant space as well...

Real estate fund manager Coima has launched its third opportunistic fund, with a target of raising €500 million by 2024 to decarbonise real estate across major Italian cities. IPE Real Assets understands that Singaporean wealth fund GIC is Coima Opportunity Fund (COF) III’s cornerstone investor, having made an initial €200 million commitment to the fund at its first close. Coima said the COF III is focused on building a portfolio of next-generation carbon-neutral real estate projects in the office and...

HIH Invest Real Estate has acquired a 21,000 square metres facility in the Netherlands on behalf of its open ended logistics real estate fund. The manager’s HIH Deutschland+ Core Logistik Invest fund has acquired the newly built asset at the Treeport business park in Rijsbergen from Dudok Real Estate and Bouwbedrijf Vrolijk for an undisclosed amount. The asset comprises 18,454 square metres of logistics, 857 square metres office and 1,648 square metres mezzanine space. Source: realassets.ipe.com on the 22nd of...

Bouwinvest’s Dutch Institutional Office Fund has emerged as the buyer of The Bell, a listed office building in Amsterdam dating from 1873. Housing corporation Stadgenoot sold the asset for €43.5 million, according to information filed with the Dutch land registry, after buying it in 2009 for €19 million. The asset, which comprises 6,950 square metres of office space, underwent a largescale renovation between 2009 and 2012. Major tenants include the higher education college De Hogeschool van Amsterdam and AHAM Vastgoed...

Azora, a Madrid-based European private equity real estate manager, has acquired the Planetocio leisure centre, located in the Collado Villalba suburb of Madrid. The acquisition is the first in the leisure segment for Azora’s new multi-strategy investment vehicle, Multi Strategy JV II. The price was not disclosed. Originally constructed in 2001, the 21,000 square metres Planetocio leisure centre is 95% occupied with an 80% focus towards leisure and entertainment. Tenants include Yelmo Cines and Media Markt, as well as several...

Moorfield Group’s fifth value-add UK real estate fund is funding a £42 million (€38.6 million) student accommodation scheme in Lincoln. The UK real estate fund manager’s Moorfield Real Estate Fund (MREF) V has entered into a development agreement with Melberry Developments for a 293-bed purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) scheme in the East Midlands. The deal marks Moorfield’s second development agreement with Melberry. In April last year, Moorfield via its MREF IV fund entered into a development agreement with Melberry for...