Real I.S. seeds €1bn mixed fund with Brussels office building

The Munich-based fund manager Real I.S. has launched its new Spezialfonds, BGV VII Europa, a diversified pan-European fund with an initial target volume of €1bn, and has already seeded it with a Brussels office building, its first investment.

The fund will invest in core and core plus office, retail, mixed-use, logistics and hotel assets in the Eurozone, with a focus on Germany, France, Benelux, Spain and Ireland. It also includes a manage-to-core strategy. "We have already registered a high level of demand for the new BGV issue from our investors, and expect to be able to place it quickly", said Jochen Schenk, board member of Real I.S.

The 11,400 sqm, eight-storey "Black Pearl" office in Brussels is in the central Léopold district and is leased for 15 years to the EU. The seller was local developere Immobel. With a conspicuous black granite façade, the BREEAM-certified building is state-of-the-art in sustainable technology, powering itself with geothermal technology and recycled rainwater from its tropical rooftops. As the first investment for the BGV VII fund, Real I.S. describes it as "a good example of the high quality standards that we expect of the chosen investments."

Real I.S. is the real estate asset manager and fund initiator for Munich-based Landesbank BayernLB. The company has set up more than 100 property funds since 1991 for private and institutional investors, and currently has €7.2bn of AUM.