Benson Elliot in €100m JV deal for landmark Berlin properties

The UK-based private equity real estate fund manager Benson Elliot has bought two landmark Berlin office properties in the centre of the city from co-operative bank Berliner Volksbank. They will be redeveloped in a joint venture with two German developers in a sale-and-leaseback deal with the Volksbank, for an investment of about €100m.

The properties were bought in a joint venture with developers Klingsöhr Projektentwicklung and Rockstone Real Estate. Both buildings are located in Berlin’s City West district. The asset on Budapester Strasse is a nine-storey office with a distinctive circular structure and 9,550 sqm of gross lettable area, and was built in 1985 as the headquarters of Berliner Volksbank.

The asset on Kurfürstenstrasse is eight storeys high with 6,200 sqm of gross lettable area, built in 1929, and with a listed shell limestone façade. It was extensively refurbished in 2002. Both properties are situated within 200 metres of Berlin's premier retail boulevards of Kurfürstendamm and Tauentzienstraße.

Berliner Volksbank, the sole occupier in both locations, has planned for a consolidation of its two bank premises into a single headquarters, after which the two assets will be redeveloped.

According to Benson Elliot founder and managing partner Marc Mogull in London, “Since entering the market in 2010, Benson Elliot has been steadily expanding its presence in Berlin… We have a very positive outlook on the market.”

Across Europe, Benson Elliot Capital Management has €850m equity under management. Its Berlin JV partner Klingsöhr Projektentwicklung has developed assets with a total investment volume of over €800m over the past 10 years, while family office Rockstone develops residential and commercial real estate at the higher end of the market, with a focus on Berlin, Hamburg and Munich. It had a pipeline of projects worth €200m at the end of 2014.