QUEST Investment Partners sells Berlin property to a BVK fund
- Office property The Graph with 7,484 m2 of rental space extends BVK fund
- QUEST Funds to act as asset manager, Universal-Investment as fund manager
- With its modern façade, The Graph adds a distinctive touch to Berlin’s Zeitungsviertel district
Hamburg/Berlin, 22 December 2021. The investment and project development company QUEST Investment Partners has sold the Berlin office property The Graph, built in 1999, to a fund of Bayerische Versorgungskammer (BVK). The building at Markgrafenstraße 62/63 comprises 7,484 m2 of rental space and 42 underground parking spaces. It is located in Berlin’s Zeitungsviertel district, in the immediate vicinity of Checkpoint Charlie. With The Graph, the “Urban Office RE” portfolio now consists of five properties, amounting to a total of around 32,400 m2. The portfolio is part of a fund managed by Universal-Investment for Bayerische Versorgungskammer, with QUEST Funds acting as the initiator and asset manager. In April 2021, QUEST Funds and Universal-Investment had taken over the initial portfolio comprising 25,000 m2 with four inner-city office buildings in Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt and Munich.
“We are planning an innovative and uniform façade for the property, which was only built in 1999 and is characterised by its excellent construction quality”, says Jan Rouven Künzel, Managing Partner at QUEST Investment Partners. In addition to a striking façade, the nine-storey building is also to receive a representative two-storey lobby as part of the refurbishment plan. QUEST Investment Partners had acquired the property in December 2020 and will carry out the refurbishment as general contractor after the sale.
“We are pleased to add another property with strong upside potential and a unique location to the fund managed for BVK”, says Roland Holschuh, Managing Partner at QUEST Funds GmbH, which acts as investment and asset manager.
The buyer received legal advice from Pinsent Masons, tax advice from EY Tax, technical advice from x. project and commercial advice from EY Real Estate. Hansa Partner Rommel & Meyer provided tax advice to the seller during the transaction; Jebens Mensching acted as legal advisor.
About QUEST Investment Partners
QUEST Investment Partners is an owner-operated real estate investment company founded in 2016. Its offices are located in Hamburg, Berlin, Munich and Frankfurt. With a portfolio of around €3.4 billion in assets under management, the company focuses on investments in commercial properties with upside potential in selected locations of major German cities. QUEST Development develops and finances high-quality real estate projects both independently and in cooperation with co-investors. The sister company QUEST Funds is responsible for the fund business and makes individual investments together with institutional investors. QUEST is also engaged in property management through its majority share in Albrecht Gebrüder & Co.
ABOUT UNIVERSAL-INVESTMENT
The Universal-Investment Group is one of Europe’s leading fund service platforms and Super ManCos with around EUR 733 billion in assets under administration, about 2,000 mutual and special fund mandates and a workforce of more than 1,000 at locations in Frankfurt am Main, Luxembourg, Dublin and Krakow. Founded in 1968, the company is an independent platform for asset managers as well as institutional investors offering structuring and administration solutions as well as risk management for Securities, Real Estate and Alternative Investments. The companies UI Labs, UI Enlyte and CAPinside complement the group’s innovative service offering. Universal-Investment is a signatory of the UN Principles of Responsible Investment. (as of 30 November 2021)
More information available at: www.universal-investment.com
About the Bayerische Versorgungskammer:
The Bayerische Versorgungskammer is the competence and service center for occupational and communal pension schemes and Germany ́s largest pension group under public law. As a public authority of the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior, it is the joint executive body of twelve liberal professions ́ and communal pension schemes. The Bayerische Versorgungskammer covers about 2.4 million insured persons in total, with contributions of € 5.2 billion and about € 3.8 billion pension payments annually. It currently has € 97.2 billion assets under management (market value) and more than 1,420 employees. The Bayerische Versorgungskammer has been a signatory of the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) since 2011. It became a member of the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) in March 2020 and joined the Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance in May 2021.
The Graph at Markgrafenstraße 62 in Berlin
Copyright: Hans Glave