OVERSEAS INVESTMENTS:AT A TIME when many investment managers are finding it extremely difficult to raise funds, the Dublin-based wealth management company Custom House Capital has just wrapped up another property deal in Germany.
The company has paid over €70 million for a newly built shopping complex, Maximilian Centre, at Woerth am Rhein near the city of Karlsruhe in the state of Rhineland-Palatine. It will have a catchment area of around 1.3 million, according to the company.
The single-storey shopping centre, which opened last November, includes a DIY store and garden centre, and has an overall floor area of 34,340sq m (369,632sq ft) and 1,211 car-parking spaces.
The building is both spacious and bright, and is designed to enhance the overall retail and leisure experience.
The centre has a net lettable floor area of 21,840sq m (235,084sq ft) which is leased to 35 traders. The Globus DIY chain store and garden centre extends to a further 12,500sq m (134,549sq ft). About 92 per cent of the retail space is already occupied in the centre which was developed by the Procom Group in Hamburg.
The purchase price was €71.8 million and the rent roll is expected to be around €4.3 million per annum.
Real estate brokers Berendes & Partner acted for Custom House Capital in Germany and sourced the investment along with Knight Frank Ireland.
Blue chip anchor tenants include German hypermarket chain Marktkauf, which together with Globus is owned by the German supermarket corporation EDEKA, one of the 10 biggest retail companies in Europe.
The other tenants include fashion retailers C&A, the German drug store chain Mueller, German shoe chain Schuh Siemes and American sandwich chain Subway.
Harry Cassidy, chief executive of Custom House Capital, said the Maximilian Centre was one of the finest properties they had acquired to date and offered strong potential for rental growth and capital appreciation. It was particularly well located in an area largely under-supplied in terms of retail space while the excellent infrastructure provided easy access for shoppers.
Ian McKee of Knight Frank said Germany continued to offer good opportunities to Irish investors. The market fundamentals were strong and there were still good deals to be had in the major cities.
