This Week's Europe Deal Sheet

France's SNCF rail authority plans to build a new train route to relieve congestion along the French Riviera, but Chanel is calling foul. The high-speed train could cut through jasmine and rose fields in Provence, which would threaten the production of the company’s iconic Chanel No. 5 perfume.

A letter from Chanel to France’s SNCF rail authority states, "the construction of a viaduct and the regular passage of high-speed trains above the flower fields would force Chanel to stop supporting its artisanal activities in the region." The quintessential French fashion house is lobbying authorities to find an alternative route.

UK

German discount supermarket chain Lidl has recieved the thumbs-up to build a new £70M London headquarters. The planned 240k SF office at Tolworth in west London will replace Lidl’s Wimbledon headquarters. The company said the move would support its 19,000 employees and create jobs across the UK. Lidl plans to ramp up its investments in London, building 250 new stores that will create up to 5,000 new jobs.

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SEGRO acquired a 210k SF prime, big-box distribution warehouse in Northampton in exchange for two recently developed Premier Inn hotels in Uxbridge and Edmonton. The counterparty to the asset swap has asked to remain confidential. The big-box warehouse is fully let to Yusen Logistics. The purchase price of £20.5M equates to a net initial yield of 5.5%.

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A fund advised by Meyer Bergman purchased a building on New Oxford Street, connected to London’s principal shopping street, for an undisclosed sum. The property is close to the upgraded Tottenham Court Road Station, a key stop for the future Crossrail high-speed rail service and the catalyst for the regeneration of the surrounding area. The basement, ground and first floors of the 10k SF building are leased to the coffeehouse Starbucks, the upper floors are designated for office use and are currently vacant.

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LGIM Real Assets sold 9 Argyll St, London W1, to a private overseas investor for £21M, which equates to a net initial yield of 2.81%. 9 Argyll St, in the west end of London, comprises a retail unit, which is let to Jigsaw, arranged over the basement, ground and first floors with five floors of separately accessed office accommodation above. CBRE acted for LGIM Real Assets on the sale, and Springer Nicolas acted for the buyer.

Rockspring Property Investment Managers let 21,530 SF at 1 Tanfield, Edinburgh, to Dutch technology company STMicroelectronics. STMicroelectronics signed a five-year lease at a rent of £19.50/SF, with an option to extend for a further five years. US medical firm Dexcom signed on for 9k SF at 1 Tanfield for its European headquarters. 1 Tanfield comprises 190k SF of Grade A office space over three floors, as well as an underground car park with 297 spaces. The asset is 96% let to 12 tenants, including Avaloq, Zonal, FNZ, Craneware and Dell Secureworks. Only one vacant suite of 7k SF remains in the building.

Hines acquired a portfolio of four prime student housing assets in the centre of Dublin on behalf of a group of German pension funds. The portfolio was acquired from ThreeSixty Developments. The combined four assets will deliver around 1,500 new beds for Dublin's growing student population. The Binary Hub (shown), in the heart of the city, was completed in July 2016 and provides state-of-the-art accommodation across 470 beds. Developments in Dorset Street and Summerhill are due to complete in 2017 and 2018, providing 450 and 400 beds, respectively. The fourth scheme in the portfolio, a development site on Cork Street, is subject to planning approval and could be delivered by 2019. Savills acted for Hines and JLL's Corporate Finance and Alternatives teams represented ThreeSixty/Oaktree.

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M&G Real Estate and Telford Homes teamed up for a second time to sign a £48.6M deal to build 125 new private rental homes in Upton Park, E13. The development, to be known as The Forge, will comprise six blocks of one-, two- and three-bedroom homes, and is near Upton Park tube station, one of London’s best connected regeneration sites.

Consent has been granted for an 11-storey tower block on the Hackney and Islington border. Metropolitan Housing Trust will create 32 homes—50% affordable—on the corner of Bridport Place and Wiltshire Row in Hoxton. 

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Moorfield Group, Worthington Properties and Panacea Property Development will develop Newcastle’s first build-to-rent scheme at the £37M Forth Bank site. The project will create 280 new homes in the city centre. Construction is set to begin this month.

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Avison Young appointed Iain Duthie as senior surveyor within the Building Consultancy team. Duthie joins from Colliers International. At Avison Young, he will be working alongside director Martin Rymer and the rest of the Building Consultancy team.

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Mason Philips merged with Scotland commercial property consultant Ryden. The merged firms will operate under the Ryden name with the London office of Mason Philips in Regent Street becoming Ryden’s base in the capital.

France

AEW leased an entire 340k SF unit at the Quai du Rivage logistics centre in northern France to global logistics firm ID Logistics. AEW acquired the asset from developer PRD while it was under development. Construction of the facility was completed in Q3 2016 and it has an HQE "Very Good" certification. AEW and ID Logistics were advised by Tostain & Laffineur.

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AXA Investment Managers - Real Assets sold the South building of its QU4DRANS office development in Paris, and agreed to the sale of the North and West buildings in the scheme, which remain under construction. These latest transactions follow the sale of QU4DRANS’ East building, in May 2016, meaning the large-scale development project has now been committed for sale in its entirety, over a year before its completion. Built out in two phases, the state-of-the-art QU4DRANS scheme comprises a campus of four separate office buildings totalling 925k SF, a size rarely seen in central Paris. 

Germany

PGIM Real Estate sold the office campus “Adlerwerke” in Frankfurt am Main to Quantum, which acquired it on behalf of a club of its German institutional investors. The office campus comprises five buildings with a total lettable area of about 860k SF, and is well-known for its historic brick buildings from the early 20th century. The buildings were fully refurbished and complemented by new buildings in 1997 and 1998. Deutsche Bahn AG and Wunderman are two long-term occupants at the fully leased property.

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Madison International Realty bought a 2M SF shopping center portfolio consisting of four properties in key markets within Germany. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The Christie Portfolio consists of four retail centers that blend retail warehouse park and shopping center features. The assets are the dominant retail destinations throughout greater Berlin and Dresden. Plans call for investment in refurbishments and logistical improvements, with focus on the properties in Eiche, where construction is nearing completion, and Dallgow, near Berlin, as well as the center in Dresden. The portfolio is 90% leased, with the majority of tenants on long-term leases. Legal advisors on the transaction were Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer for Madison and Latham & Watkins for the seller.

Poland

Invesco Real Estate acquired Q22, a 39-storey office building in Warsaw, from developer Echo Investment for €230M, in the largest transaction in Poland this year.

Hungary 

M7 Real Estate acquired two assets in Croatia and Hungary totaling €14M; these are M7’s first entry into both countries. M7 has acquired a real estate portfolio from Recovery Zrt, the asset management company for CIB Bank in Budapest, Hungary. The portfolio consists of two retail centres and a 124k SF vacant stand-alone urban logistics asset. In a separate transaction, M7 acquired the Mani Business Centre, a 150k SF multi-tenanted office park in Zagreb.

Finland

AXA Investment Managers - Real Assets acquired a portfolio of 11 healthcare assets in Finland for about €65M. The portfolio comprises 11 modern and purpose-built healthcare assets, all of which have been developed since 2012, with two remaining under construction, due to be completed in 2017. Nine of the assets focus on elderly care while the remaining two specialise in mental health provision. The portfolio is let to five market-leading Nordic operators, and benefits from long-term leases.