ECE fund for shopping centers buys in Europe
ECE European Prime Shopping Centre Fund II has received equity commitments of 740 million euros from sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, and insurance companies from Europe, Asia, and the USA. The target volume of the ECE Fund amounts to a maximum of 850 million euros. This corresponds to a gross investment volume of more than two billion euros. Two properties in Poland and in Germany have already been acquired.
As with the first ECE shopping center fund, the focus of the investment strategy is on existing shopping centers in Europe with value enhancement potential. According to the company, the investment phase of ECE Fund II will extend until 2018. Dr. Volker Kraft, Managing Director of ECE Real Estate Partners, says that the Stern-Center in Lüdenscheid, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, was the first to be acquired recently. "As the largest shopping center in the Sauerland region, the Stern-Center is a center of attraction for a region with a population of around 440,000 and brings with it the best prerequisites to be successfully developed further," says Kraft.
The sellers of the German retail property are Irish investors. The shopping center, which was opened in 1977, has been under the management of ECE since 1991 and has a sales area of approximately 30,000 square meters on four levels with a total of 110 stores. The anchor tenants include Saturn, H&M, C&A and Rewe. In November, the second property will be added to the fund portfolio, Kraft explains. Then, the Zielone Arkady in Bydgoszcz, Poland, developed by ECE itself, will be completed and open. (mr)
