Hines Continues European Retail-Investment Spree

By Mihaela Coste

Preciados and Paseo de Gracia

Madrid and Barcelona—Hines recently announced that, in partnership with German company Universal-Investment, it has completed the acquisition of two prime high street retail assets in Madrid and Barcelona. The partnership acquired the properties on behalf of Bayerische Versorgungskammer (BVK), Germany’s largest pension scheme group, for a combined amount of approximately $205 million (€190 million).

Located on Calle Preciados/Maestro Victoria, on the busiest pedestrian street in Madrid, Preciados comprises two buildings: Preciados 13 and Maestro Victoria 5. The assets, encompassing approximately 53,819 square feet of retail space, were acquired from Spanish Groupo Baraka for $107 million (€100 million). Hines has been advised on the acquisition by Aguirre Newman, a Spanish real estate consultancy company.

The property situated at Paseo de Gracia 17 in Barcelona was acquired from a private entity managed by Banco Popular for a price tag of approximately $97 million (€90 million). The building is currently Banco Popular’s headquarters. Hines plans to redevelop the asset, and once refurbrished, it will feature over 32,000 square feet of retail space and roughly 54,000 square feet of Class A office space. CBRE advised Hines in the acquisition.

“The purchase of Preciados and Paseo de Gracia represents a great opportunity to further diversify BVK’s portfolio, as well as investing in a country that is potentially expected to grow at a high pace during the next years,” added Alexander Tannenbaum, managing director of Universal-Investment.

“Since being awarded the BVK mandate in Q4 2015, Hines has successfully acquired a number of high-quality retail assets in prime locations on high streets across European territories including France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway and Denmark,” said Lars Huber, CEO of Hines Europe, in a prepared statement.

The transactions represent the eighth and ninth acquisitions that Hines is doing for the $1.4 billion (€1.3 billion) investment BVK mandate, which is targeting prime high street retail assets across Europe and reinforce the company’s strong presence in Europe.

Image courtesy of Hines