US asset manager Blackstone's Real Estate Partners Europe IV and Germany's Quantum Capital have agreed to acquire the Treptowers office building in the Mediaspree sub-market of Berlin for 鈧�230 mln, reflecting a yield of 6%.
The vendor is Deutsche Office, a 90.9% subsidiary of alstria office REIT.
Treptowers, originally developed in 1998, provides 90,000 m2 of office space and is currently fully occupied by Allianz which, however, has announced plans to vacate the building at the end of its current lease in mid-2019.
The building generates an annual rental income of 鈧�13.9 mln. Blackstone and Quantum will oversee the management of the property.
The deal does not include the main tower in the Treptowers complex which was sold at end 2013 to a Japanese institutional investor for 鈧�65 mln. The 125-metre high asset - Berlin's tallest office building - provides 35,000 m2 and is majority let to a German federal agency.
'We are delighted to make another investment in Berlin. Treptowers will form an integral part of our German office portfolio which focuses on high-quality assets in prime locations across Germany鈥檚 largest cities,' said Anthony Myers, head of European Real Estate at Blackstone.
Blackstone's current portfolio comprises almost 300,000 m2 and includes assets in Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich, and Dusseldorf.
The sale of the asset will allow alstria to reduce its net loan to value from 49% to 45%. 'The sale of the Treptowers asset allows alstria to substantially de-risk its balance sheet,' commented Olivier Elamine, CEO of alstria office REIT-AG. 鈥榃e will be re-investing the proceeds of this sale mostly in the Berlin market, however, on smaller assets that better fit into the risk-return profile we are looking after.'
The transaction was brokered by JLL.
The seller was advised by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. The buyers鈥� consortium was advised by CBRE, Clifford Chance and PwC.
