CWI & SWIP acquire the first asset for puretail fund

Cushman & Wakefield Investors (CWI) and Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) have acquired Kasernenstrasse 1 in Düsseldorf, on behalf of the Pan-European Urban Retail Fund (PURetail).

The mixed-use building offers ca. 4,800 sqm of newly refurbished retail and office space and was purchased for just under €20 million.  The building is let to, amongst others, well-known retailers such as Diesel and Mavi Jeans. Rheinwert Immobilienconsulting GmbH advised the Fund on this acquisition.

The property is in an excellent inner-city location directly in the CBD of Düsseldorf with close proximity to the main shopping streets. Kasernenstrasse is an established retail location for upmarket fashion labels.  The building is benefiting from an improving streetscape due to fact the tram lines are being replaced by an underground Metro line and subsequent widening of the pavements.  New Metro station entrances adjacent to the property will further increase the footfall to the building. Jens Göttler, the Fund’s asset manager said: “The property is an ideal first purchase for PURetail as it delivers immediate stable cash flow. In addition the asset is significantly under rented and in a location where there is potential for value enhancement following completion of the Metro and therefore offers interesting future potential for the Fund.”

Robert Matthews, Investment Director, Real Estate at SWIP said: “We are delighted to have secured such a high quality asset as the first purchase for the PURetail Fund in one of our key target cities in Germany.  We have a strong deal pipeline and look forward to closing further transactions in our initial target markets of France, Germany and Sweden during the second half of this year.” The PURetail Fund was launched at the end of March 2011 following a successful first close of €100 million in equity from three institutional investors.  The Fund is able to use leverage of up to 50% loan-to-value, providing a total of approximately €200m in capital to be deployed in retail assets in the target markets.