This Week's Europe Deal Sheet

UK

Liberty Living snapped up a £460M purpose-built student accommodation, becoming the second-largest owner/operator of student housing in the UK. Liberty bought the Union State portfolio, comprising 13 student accommodation residences with about 6,500 beds, from Blackstone. The Union State portfolio includes property in Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham and Sheffield and a potential development site in London. 

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LondonMetric exchanged contracts with Michelin to build a new 137K SF distribution centre in Stoke that is slated for completion at the end of 2017. Michelin signed a new 15-year lease at a rent of £5.35/SF. LondonMetric also exchanged contracts with Eddie Stobart to build a 180K SF distribution unit at its logistics centre in Dagenham. 

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Audley Retirement secured planning permission to begin work on its latest development in Englefield Green near Egham, Surrey, which will provide 78 luxury apartments. Formerly part of Brunel University, the site is within the 66 acres of the Magna Carta Park. The development will provide a selection of luxury one-,  two- and three-bedroom retirement properties, along with facilities including a restaurant, a bistro, a library, a health club and a swimming pool, many of which are open to the wider community. Audley Cooper’s Hill is expected to open in early 2019.

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British Land and Hercules Unit Trust signed a flurry of new retail, food and beverage lettings at Glasgow Fort.

These lettings follow the completion of the new £12M Leisure Quarter, which features four restaurants and a 600-space multi-storey car park. The car park provides 30% additional parking capacity to accommodate increasing customer numbers.

• Superdry signed for its largest store in Glasgow and its first out-of-town store in the UK, taking 12K SF on a 10-year lease.
• Gourmet Burger Kitchen leased 3K SF on a 15-year lease.
• Thai street food operator Thaikhun inked 3,750 SF in a 15-year lease.
• Paperchase is opening its first Scottish out-of-town store with 2K SF on a 10-year lease.
• Smiggle is set to open its first out-of-town store in the UK, taking 1K SF on a 10-year lease.
• YO! Sushi will transform the centre’s entrance with a 2,300 SF restaurant on a 20-year lease.
• Costa has upsized and will open one of its largest UK units, 3,500 SF on a 10-year lease.
• Footasylum has signed for 5K SF on a 10-year lease.
• Pret a Manger will operate a bespoke 2,500 SF glazed pod featuring a green living wall on a 20-year lease.
• Tessuti will complement the centre’s extensive fashion offering by sharing a 10K SF store with Scotts on a 15-year lease.
• Waterstones has signed for 3,300 SF on a 10-year lease.
• Café Rouge has taken 3,900 SF on a 15-year lease for its first Scottish out-of-town restaurant.
• Nando’s, which has traded very successfully since first opening at Glasgow Fort, has extended into an adjacent unit, almost doubling its space to 4,700 SF on a 15-year lease.
• JD Sports has doubled its space at the centre and will open a 10K SF store on a 15-year lease.
• Mamas & Papas has moved within the centre to a new 5K SF unit on a 15-year lease.

British Land and HUT are represented by Paradigm and Cushman & Wakefield.

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At Meadowhall in Yorkshire, British Land signed and upsized six new tenants with deals totalling over 915K SF as the €69.4M refurbishment moves into its next phase.

• Primark is extending its unit, creating a 1M SF flagship store. The expansion is being facilitated by a move into the former BHS unit.
• Sports Direct leased the remainder of the former BHS unit, increasing its presence to 473K SF. 
• Family value homewares and household goods retailer Wilko will move into the 156K SF former Sports Direct store in early 2018.
• A new 30K SF schuh kids specialist store will be opening next door to the existing shuh store on Meadowhall's High Street. 
• Outdoor clothing retailer Timberland is launching a 21K SF store on Meadowhall's High Street in April.
• Second Cup is to open one of its first UK flagship coffee shops on Meadowhall's Arcade. The 17K SF café will open later this month as the brand's "black label" site for the UK, featuring the company's latest interior design concept.

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Crosslane Student Developments secured conditional planning consent to deliver a 117-bed purpose-built student accommodation development on Woodhouse Square in Leeds. Completion is due in time for the 2018-2019 academic year. The £14M scheme features significant dedicated communal areas, including a common room, a study room, a kitchen/dining area, a gym and an outdoor courtyard with cycle storage. 

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Redevco acquired a high street asset in Glasgow for over €26.7M. The building, along Glasgow’s prime retail pitch of Buchanan Street, was redeveloped a few years ago to offer modern retailing space for Nike. The 27K SF property consists of four floors. It is one of only a handful of buildings of this scale along Buchanan Street. It is opposite House of Fraser Department Store and enjoys the company of top national and international retail brands. Redevco was advised by Lambert Smith Hampton. LaSalle Investment Management was advised by BNP Paribas Real Estate.

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CBRE hired Tom Woolhouse into its UK capital markets team. Woolhouse will oversee the expansion of the south east office team as investment volumes continue to gather momentum and investors increasingly look to the UK regions for investment opportunities.

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St. George purchased the 21-acre Northfield Industrial Estate from Segro; the price was undisclosed. St. George plans to create a residential development in the brownfield site.

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IndustryHub, the discovery and collaboration platform for the built environment, has announced its official launch as Built-ID after raising over £1.1M. Started by Savannah de Savary as IndustryHub in 2016, Built-ID enables members to instantly identify the project teams behind properties and to showcase their work and collaborations to an international audience of potential clients, investors and JV partners. To date, the site has amassed over 19,000 developments listed across 110 countries.

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Commercial property specialists Bruton Knowles celebrated 20 years of operations in Surrey at a wine tasting evening with business colleagues and clients at Corkage, a wine bar in Guildford town centre. 

POLAND

BBI Development completed Zlota 44 in Warsaw — now Europe’s tallest residential building. Over 50% of the units are pre-sold. The new tower provides 287 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments and a penthouse with business, leisure, concierge and parking facilities. The 52-storey tower is across from Stalin’s Palace of Culture.

GERMANY

Rockspring Property Investment Managers agreed to buy the 107K SF Coca-Cola headquarters building in Berlin from Deka Fonds for just over €59M. The acquisition is expected to close in June 2017. The building, which has a LEED Gold certification, is on the River Spree in the Media Spree district of Berlin and has been wholly occupied by Coca-Cola since its completion in 2013. CBRE acted on behalf of the vendor.

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Tishman Speyer signed two significant leasing agreements for the centrally located Junghof on Neue Rothofstrasse in Frankfurt. WeWork will rent 54K SF, providing co-working and office space for up to 800 users, while Juwelier Friedrich will open a new boutique in a unit comprising 2,700 SF.

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Deka Immobilien has extended a lease agreement growing its footprint to around 7,300 square metres with CMS Hasche Sigle, Hamburg. The international law firm, which has been in the Fleethof since 1996, expanded its lease by around 1,700 square metres. The prestigious office building was built in 1993 in Hanseatic architectural style, offers a total area of around 16K square metres and is now almost fully leased to 15 tenants.

The Fleethof is in the heart of the Hamburg business district between Binnenalster and the Elbe River. The property is part of the portfolio of the open-ended real estate fund Deka-ImmobilienEuropa and has received “Very Good” BREEAM in-use sustainability certification.

SPAIN

Ferrari Land opened its doors to the public for the first time after a grand opening ceremony during which 1,500 guests gathered including special guest Ferrari test driver Marc Gené. The resort, which is about an hour outside of Barcelona, is a tribute to the genius of Enzo Ferrari, to the lifestyle he created and the iconic red cars, symbols of speed, technology and innovation. Spanning over 753K SF, the new park offers 11 attractions for the whole family, with a strong focus on technology and adrenaline. Crowning the skyline of the park is Red Force, the highest and fastest roller coaster in Europe. 

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Barings Real Estate Advisers acquired a logistics asset in Madrid from GLL Real Estate Partners. The 603K SF unit is fully let to Ceva, a global logistics and freight management business, which recently renewed its lease.

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Groupo Lar bought a portfolio of Spanish retail assets for €110.7M from Rockspring. The portfolio includes a 70% stake in the 583K SF Parque Comercial Abadia, a retail park outside of Toledo. Tenants include Decathlon, Media Markt and Alcampo.

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Hines and German investment company Universal-Investment completed the acquisition of two prime high street retail assets with associated office space in Madrid and Barcelona on behalf of the Bayerische Versorgungskammer. In Madrid, the property on Calle Preciados/Maestro Victoria has been purchased from Spanish Groupo Baraka for €100M. The Barcelona acquisition on Paseo de Gracia was bought from a private vehicle managed by Banco Popular for €90M.