Patrizia has sold the shares of the company owning Astro Tower, a prime office building in the heart of Brussels, on behalf of one of its single mandate institutional clients, AIP Asset Managment, a South Korean consortium.
Astro Tower was the first in the Belgian capital city to achieve the highest possible energy performance certification, following its refurbishment in 2015-16.
The buyer is Hamburg-based Union Investment for its institutional fund UniInstitutional European Real Estate and both parties have agreed not to disclose the selling price.
At a height of 107 metres, or 30 office floors, Astro Tower has been part of Brussels’s skyline since it was built in 1976. The office building is strategically located along the inner ring road at the crossroads of the three main districts in the city’s CBD with very good public transport connections. The property also encompasses five levels of underground space with car parking and an archive area. It is let to Actiris, a public employment agency, with 21 years unexpired on the lease.
Suzy Denys, Country Manager and Director Transactions Belux at Patrizia, said: “Astro Tower is a highly sustainable office building let on an indexed lease and ticks all the boxes for investors seeking a core office asset in a core European city. The property was awarded a Grade A rating in 2016 for its energy performance.”
Kim Sardar, Head of Single Asset Mandates and Director Fund Management at Patrizia, said: “This sale marks the delivery of a successful round trip for our client, from acquisition in 2016. The Single Asset Mandates team at Patrizia provides an integrated, one stop shop for our clients, drawing together expertise from the full range of Patrizia teams from transactions, to asset and development management, and fund services. With a breadth of experience across the wider Patrizia EUR 48bn portfolio of assets and local teams on the ground, we identify and deliver investment opportunities across Europe, developing and actioning business plans on behalf of our clients.”
Danny Kim, CEO of AIP Asset Management, commented: “The sale certainly demonstrated solid quality of the European assets with robust returns, further enhancing the level of interest in European assets among the Korean investors.”
