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The Italian fund management arm of US real estate developer Hines has launched a new property development fund which will take control of part of Milan's Porta Nuova mixed-use project, worth some EUR 250 mln. The launch of the Porta Nuova Isola fund comes shortly after the closing last month of the Porta Nuova Varesine vehicle, which raised EUR 900 mln from investors.

In September this year, Hines Italia Sgr also launched Porta Nuova Garibaldi, the first part of the Porta Nuova project, which took control of EUR 950 mln in property assets. Alltogether, the three Porta Nuova vehicles have over EUR 2 bn of assets under management at present.

Garibaldi, Varesine and Isola represent the three parts of the Porta Nuova project, currently one of the largest city centre regeneration project in Italy. Porta Nuova will involve an overall investment of EUR 2 bn, including equity in excess of EUR 400 mln. The three sites totalling more than 250,000 m² have been acquired between 2004 and 2006. The development is expected to be completed by 2013.

Law firm Gianni, Origoni, Grippo & Partners advised Hines on the operation.

Additionally, Hines Italia Sgr said it has been appointed by Inpgi, the private pension fund of Italian journalists, to set up a new investment fund which will take control of the residential section of the Porta Nuova project.The fund will be 100%-owned by Ingpi and will be named Inpgi Hines Fund. It will initially have EUR 40 mln of funds for the development of a 4,000 m² site, part of Porta Nuova Garibaldi.

This week, Hines also received approval from the Bank of Italy for the launch of two new investment vehicles for institutional investors, Hines Italian Value Added Fund and the Assicura RE fund.