Warburg-HIH bags prime Berlin complex for pension fund RVK

Warburg-HIH Invest Real Estate (Warburg-HIH Invest) has bought a central Berlin mixed-use building for Rheinische Versorgungskassen (RVK), a German pension fund, for an undisclosed sum.

The "Quartier am Auswärtigen Amt" in Berlin-Mitte, a 19,500-sqm building that includes office, hotel and residential units in the seven-building complex including an underground garage, was built in 2008. The buildings are all connected with each other around a collective interior square, with all the separate buildings fully-let.

The complex extends across a whole block at Werdescher Market, Kurstrasse, Oberwallstrasse and Jägerstrasse close to the Stadtschloss, and includes the 4-star hotel "Arcotel John F" from the Austrian hotel group, the Bundesverband deutscher Apotheker and the German foreign ministry.

Hans-Joachim Lehmann, managing director of transaction management in Germany at Warburg-HIH Invest, said the investment would enable RVK “to participate in the dynamic growth of Berlin’s office, residential and hotel markets”. The €5.7bn pension fund has a 1% allocation to direct property, according to its website.

Lehmann said: “The Quartier boasts a wide range of usage categories, which makes it a highly diversified investment, while it also benefits from a multi-tenant structure and well-established tenants.”