Warburg-HIH Invest acquires two office properties in Frankfurt’s European Quarter
Warburg-HIH Invest Real Estate has acquired two office buildings situated next to each other in Frankfurt’s European Quarter from property developer Aurelis Real Estate.
Raised by Aurelis, the two properties are currently under construction in the immediate vicinity of the fairgrounds and close to the central railway station. They are let for 20 years to Deutsche Bahn AG.
The forward deal includes the new-build office buildings DB Brick and DB Tower. The gross lettable area totals 53,778 square meters (578,862 square feet). In addition, the two properties will have the use of 374 underground parking spots. It was agreed not to disclose the purchase price.
The DB Brick building with its lettable area of 23,400 square meters (251,876 square feet), and a 162-plus underground parking spots, will be added to a pooled fund vehicle on behalf of a German plan sponsor and a superannuation scheme.
The DB Tower building, having a lettable area of 30,300 square meters (326,146 square feet), and a 212-plus underground parking spots, will be added to an individual fund on behalf of another German superannuation scheme.
“The transaction reaffirms our strategy to secure particularly attractive property developments in an early stage,” said Hans-Joachim Lehmann, managing director at Warburg-HIH Invest. “The long lease term, the blue-chip credit worthiness of the incoming tenant and the strategically important location in Europe’s second largest place of finance will make it possible to generate stable long-term cash flows.”
The property development is the largest structural engineering project pursued by Aurelis at the moment. Last October, the real estate company signed a long-term lease with Deutsche Bahn AG for the two properties on Europa-Allee. Around 3,000 Deutsche Bahn employees of various business units will move into their new premises in late 2020.
“The construction work is right on schedule,” elaborated Joachim Wieland, CEO of Aurelis. “We already started excavating the construction pit for the 60-metre DB Tower high-rise. For the DB Brick building, the shell-and-core work will start soon.”
Over the past 20 years, Warburg-HIH Invest gathered a wealth of experience in the placement of forward deals. Projects in which the company committed itself early on through club deals last year included “MesseCity Köln” in Cologne, the new corporate headquarters of Gruner + Jahr in Hamburg and the “East Side Office” in Berlin, among others.
The European Quarter in Frankfurt counts among the largest urban development projects in Germany. Aurelis is developing the western section of the area on 670,000 square meters (7.2 million square feet). Around 13,000 people will eventually live and work here. An underground line still under construction will provide convenient transportation access to the central railway station via the U5 line.
