Henderson Park and HBB take over Rathaus-Galerie Essen – Henderson Park enters the German market
London, Hamburg 11 September 2019 – Henderson Park, the European private equity real estate platform, and the HBB Hanseatische Betreuungs- und Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH have acquired the Rathaus Galerie shopping center in downtown Essen. Henderson Park is acquiring the property in a joint venture with HBB, one of Germany's leading developers, investors and operators of commercial properties. HBB is taking on the classic development tasks of planning, leasing and revitalization and will manage and administer the property in the future.
The Rathaus Galerie is an established shopping center with 31.000 square meters of rental space in a prime location in the center of Essen. The property is structurally closely connected to the Essen town hall and is located directly above the Rathaus Essen train station, a central transport hub in the city. This offers access to seven subway and tram lines as well as ten bus lines, with almost 40.000 passengers daily. The highly visible building has generous parking facilities, which complement the excellent connections to the center.
The shopping center is well rented with strong anchor tenants such as real, Decathlon and dm. With a visitor frequency of more than 10 million visitors per year, the Rathaus Galerie still offers exceptional opportunities for repositioning. The joint venture's strategy includes comprehensive modernization and restructuring, which complements and improves the tenant mix and particularly strengthens the local supply offer. An innovative catering concept in the style of a market hall is intended to invite the many visitors and customers to linger.
This transaction is Henderson Park's first investment in Germany, made possible by the formation of a new joint venture with HBB. The joint venture plans further exciting investments in the German real estate market.
Nick Weber, founding partner of Henderson Park, commented: "This acquisition enables us to enter the highly attractive German market together with our experienced local partner HBB at a competitive price. Rathaus Galerie is the first shopping centre asset in Henderson Park's portfolio and strengthens it due to the clear latent value creation potential. We look forward to expanding our new partnership with HBB and exploring further attractive opportunities in Germany that make optimal use of the expertise of both parties."
Harald Ortner, Managing Director of HBB, commented:
"The Rathaus Galerie Essen is a great opportunity to create sustainable value for our new joint venture with Henderson Park. We look forward to this promising collaboration with the entire Henderson Park team and to further great joint investments."
The joint venture was advised on the transaction by ZENK Rechtsanwälte, Drees & Sommer, Eversheds Sutherland and Ashurst.
More information:
About Henderson Park
Henderson Park is a pan-European private equity real estate manager based in London. The company has invested over $6 billion in building a real estate portfolio across Europe, primarily targeting Europe's metropolitan areas. The company seeks to acquire high-quality assets in prime locations where it can identify the potential to develop or create value through asset management or addressing complex situations. Henderson Park is committed to working with best-in-class local business partners and building long-term strategic relationships. Henderson Park is led by Nick Weber, its founding partner and CEO.
FTI Consulting
+44 (0) 20 37 27 10 00
Richard Sunderland / Ellie Sweeney / Catriona Flint
Hendersonpark@fticonsulting.com
About HBB
The Hamburg-based HBB Group has been active as an investor and developer in the German real estate industry for almost 50 years. Retail, office, hotel, senior citizen and residential properties have been developed and managed by HBB throughout Germany. HBB sees itself as a specialized investor with the goal of creating long-term, sustainable values. HBB is an owner-managed company and has a well-trained team of around 80 employees who cover all aspects from development to center management.
+49 (0) 40 60 09 07 – 110
Harold Ortner
Ortner@hbb.de
