Hines, the international real estate firm, today announced the sale of distinctive retail and office property ZOOM Berlin to Bavarian pension provider Bayerische Versorgungskammer (BVK) and asset manager SwissLife. CorpusSireo has been appointed as investment manager. The new-build developed successfully by Hines Immobilien is located between main station Bahnhof Zoo and premiere shopping boulevard KurfĂĽrstendamm. The mixed-use building was completed in October 2018 and up to 90 percent of the floorspace has been leased. ZOOM Berlin was developed in a joint venture by Hines and a German pension fund. This was the first of currently five projects that were carried out in collaboration with this pension fund. The transaction is subject to antitrust approval. Financials on the deal were not disclosed.
“With ZOOM we have developed a property that harmonises perfectly with the up-and-coming City-West district. It is particularly gratifying that a diverse mix of tenants is enthusiastic about the property – from tech startups through innovative gastronomy outlets to established real estate agents. This is exactly the kind of heterogeneous tenant structure that represents all facets of a diversified quarter. We are particularly delighted that with Bayerische Versorgungskammer and Swiss Life Asset Managers we have found a prestigious consortium of buyers for continuing the future of the project.” said Joachim Wintzer, Managing Director at Hines.
Roy Brümmer, Head of Investment & Transaction, CORPUS SIREO, said: “City-West is experiencing stable upturn. Investing here is a sustainably good decision. We are glad to be able to purchase such a prominent building in an absolute top location in Berlin City-West for Swiss Life Asset Managers and the BVK.”
Christoph Geirhos, Head of Property Purchase and Sales at BVK added: “As a long-term oriented investor, the building convinces us not only because of its the attractive location, but also because of its excellent quality and flexibility. We are glad to be able to purchase a further top property together with Swiss Life Asset Managers.”
The focus during the development phase was on the mixed use of the building’s floorspace and the exceptional architecture. Firstly, the tenants value the individually tailored modules that morph into different floorspace sizes and usable spaces. Secondly, they like the high recognition value of the building. The lively facade with dynamic recesses featuring landscaped terraces for the tenants is an additional feature. Tenants also benefit from first-class DGNB (German Sustainable Building Council) and WiredScore certification that authenticates the outstanding connectivity for the building and highlights the highest level of sustainability for the owner. The combination of attributes has provided significant impetus to the success of the concept. The occupancy rate of ZOOM Berlin exceeded expectations during the construction phase. Most of the 16,500 square metres of floorspace in the newbuild have already been leased. The main tenant of the building is the fashion retailer Primark from Ireland, which has leased almost 80 percent of the retail space out of a total of some 11,000 square metres. There are also numerous innovative gastronomy concepts, such as Burgermeister and Starbucks. The 5,500 square metres of office space have been leased to various businesses including Engel & Völkers and a tech company. Hines also leased floorspace for its own uses during the construction phase.
BNP Paribas and Lührmann acted as brokers. Legal advice was provided on the seller side by Pöllath+Partners and on the vendor side by Taylor Wessing.
You will find further information here: http://zoom.berlin
About Hines:
Hines is a privately owned global real estate investment firm founded in 1957 with a presence in 214 cities in 24 countries. Hines has approximately $120.6 billion of assets under management, including $66.5 billion for which Hines provides fiduciary investment management services, and $54.1 billion for which Hines provides third-party property-level services. The firm has 128 developments currently underway around the world. Historically, Hines has developed, redeveloped or acquired 1,348 properties, totaling over 444 million square feet. The firm’s current property and asset management portfolio includes 512 properties, representing over 223 million square feet. With extensive experience in investments across the risk spectrum and all property types, and a pioneering commitment to sustainability, Hines is one of the largest and most-respected real estate organizations in the world. Visit www.hines.com for more information.
About Swiss Life Asset Managers:
Swiss Life Asset Managers has over 160 years of experience in the management of the assets of the Swiss Life group. This insurance origin has decidedly formed the investment philosophy. The highest principles such as value preservation, the achieving of long-term and stable profits and the responsible dealing with risks form the focus. With this we create the basis, upon which our customers can plan on a solid and long-term basis – self-defined and with financial confidence. This tried-and—tested approach makes Swiss Life Asset Managers also accessible to third-party clients in Switzerland, France, Germany, Luxemburg and Great Britain.
As of 31st December 2018 Swiss Life Asset Managers manage 206.7 billion Euros of assets for the Swiss Life group, of which over 63 billion Euros of investment business is allocated to third-party clients.
In addition to this, Swiss Life Asset Managers are the leading property managers1 in Europe. From a total of 206.7 billion of managed assets, 55.7 billion Euros are invested in properties. In addition, Swiss Life Asset Managers achieves via the subsidiary companies Livit, Corpus Sireo and Beos a total of 25.3 billion Euros of real estate. As of the end of December 2018, this resulted in a total of managed properties amounting to approx. 81 billion Euros.
About Bayerische Versogungskammer:
As the largest public pension group in Germany the Bayerische Versorgungskammer is the largest public service and competence center for professional and municipal pensions. It manages the businesses of twelve legally independent professional and municipal pension institutions with a total of round about 2.3 billion insured persons and old age pension beneficiaries, approx. 4.8 billion € annually of contribution and apportionment revenues and approx. 3.4 billion Euros annually of pension payments. It manages for all institutions together a capital investment volume or, at the moment, approx. 77 billion € (book value). The Bayerische Versorgungskammer employs more than 1,300 employees and is signatory of the Diversity Charter since 2010, Signatory of the UN Principles or responsible investment (PRI) since 2011 and Signatory of the Memorandum for Women in Leadership since February 2017.
