Hines Teams with Universal-Investment on First UK Acquisition

The joint venture is moving forward with a $1.5 billion European shopping spree on behalf of Bayerische Versorgungskammer.

By Keith Loria, Contributing Editor

229-249 Buchanan St., Glasgow

229-249 Buchanan St., Glasgow

Glasgow, Scotland—On behalf of an institutional real estate fund, Universal-Investment and Hines have acquired a retail asset on Glasgow’s prime shopping street from Hermes Investment Management.

The acquisition was administered and managed on behalf of Bayerische Versorgungskammer, Germany’s largest pension scheme group with approximately €62 billion assets under management. The deal is part of its €1.3 billion ($1.5 billion) investment mandate from BVK which is targeting prime high-street retail assets across Europe.

“This represented a rare off-market opportunity to acquire a prime retail asset of scale in an excellent location in the city’s retail core,” Jake Walsh, Hines UK director, said in a prepared release. “It fully meets our criteria and offers an immediate value-add opportunity with the vacant unit.”

The property is located at 229-249 Buchanan St. in the heart of Glasgow’s retail core, directly opposite the Buchanan Galleries premier shopping center and immediately adjacent to Buchanan Quarter.

The building is currently 65 percent occupied by three leading fashion and sports brands, with one vacant unit.

The property represents the first acquisition in the UK for the BVK European high-street retail account, which Hines was awarded in December 2015.

“We are very pleased with the speed at which we have been able to identify and acquire core-plus and value-add assets in prime retail locations for BVK, and we are making good progress in building their portfolio,” noted Lars Huber, Hines Europe co-CEO. “We are continuing to target other assets meeting this criteria across 20 countries in Europe and look forward to announcing further transactions in the near future.”

Hermes Investment Management will be redeploying the capital from the property sale into other opportunities.

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