Mirae Sells Germany’s Cologne City Hall For €500m

Korean investment manager Mirae Asset Global Investments has sold the Cologne city hall to Germany’s DIC Asset AG for €500 million ($555 million), achieving a 27 percent capital gain after holding the asset for just over three and a half years.

Known locally as the Stadthaus, the Peter Böhm-designed office complex in western Germany houses 3,500 civil servants, and is fully leased to the city government with an average remaining lease term of nine years.

The Frankfurt-based buyer said in an announcement that it had purchased the property on behalf of five German institutional investors.

Sonja Wärntges, DIC Asset AG’s chief executive officer, commented that the Stadthaus is a “highly attractive landmark property occupied by a triple-A tenant and distinguished by stable long-term cash flows and distributions.”

According to Korean local media, a Mirae spokesperson said that the property, which was bought through its global real estate fund, had provided a stable annual return of eight percent.

Located next to the Bf Deutz high-speed railway station, Mirae Asset acquired the Stadthaus in April 2016 for €365 million from German real estate fund manager Joseph Esch, who developed the building in a joint venture with Sal Oppenheim before the private bank was taken over by Deutsche Bank in 2010.

The complex, which was completed in 1998, comprises a pair of office buildings with a net leasable area of 103,593 square metres (1.1 million square feet) and 2,900 parking spaces.

Ref: Property Report