In May of this year Deutsche Wohnen successfully completed the refurbishment of the Ring Estate Siemensstadt. Since August 2009 Deutsche Wohnen has invested a total of € 9.5 million (of which € 3.15 million were state subsidies) in the comprehensive refurbishment of the estate in accordance with its listed building status. This was done to preserve the unique character of the estate in Berlin-Charlottenburg and to adapt it to the requirements of modern living. Deutsche Wohnen owns 527 residential units in the northern section of the Ring Estate, which has been on the world cultural heritage list of Unesco since 2008.

In the course of the refurbishment work all the roofs were modernised, the stairwells and numerous facades and balconies refurbished in accordance with the estate’s listed building status, and many landscaped areas re-designed. In order to improve the estate’s energy efficiency Deutsche Wohnen focused on the insulation of cellar ceilings and attics and the replacement of windows in the kitchen and bathroom. To conclude the refurbishment work the children’s play area in Goebelstrasse was redesigned in May of this year and given a streetball area, table tennis tables, swings and an area for small children to crawl and climb.

The Ring Estate Siemensstadt was built between 1929 and 1934 by members of the innovative and progressive architects’ association “The Ring”. Six young architects realised their ideas of modern urban design in this estate: Otto Bartning, Fred Forbat, Walter Gropius, Hugo Häring, Paul-Rudolf Henning and Hans Scharoun. The variety of their styles is evident in the estate today. The entire spectrum of “New Building” can be seen here – from the functionalism of Gropius to the spatial artistry of Scharoun to Häring’s organic variety of forms.

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AEW Europe announced the acquisition of a new logistics asset in Bremen for the Logistis Fund. This acquisition is consistent with the Fund’s strategy of growing the portfolio into Germany and the Benelux area. Logistis already manages an existing portfolio of high quality grade A logistics assets totaling more than 1.6 million sqm in France, Italy, Spain and Belgium.

This 29,000 sqm brand new grade A logistics development is in a multimodal logistics park located within the harbour of Bremen. The building will be delivered in December 2014 and will have a DGNB Silver environmental certification. It is fully let to a prime logistics provider on a 10 year firm lease. Logistis has a significant acquisition pipeline in Germany, Benelux and France and is targeting investing up to €500 million in Germany over the next two years.

AEW Europe was one of the first real estate investment managers to offer a specialist logistics fund in 1999 and has since built up the Logistis portfolio to approximately €1 billion, with annual distributions in excess of 7%.

Rémy Vertupier, Logistis Fund Manager said: “We will continue to build a high quality portfolio that provides a relatively high stable income return to our investors as part of the next phase of expanding the Logistis brand in Northern Europe”.

Logistis held its most recent closing of €85 million in February 2014, taking the total equity in the Fund to €600 million. The Fund is targeting a maximum of €1.2 billion of equity capital with the final close expected at the end of the year.

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Hyundai Capital Europa GmbH has signed a lease agreement for roughly 4,000 m² (43,055 ft²) of office space in Tower 185. With the conclusion of these lease agreements, the building's lease rate increases to around 85 per cent. Green Real Estate was involved in an advisory capacity for the conclusion of the lease agreement with Hyundai Capital Europe.

Tower 185, which was designed by Prof. Christoph Mäckler Architekten in compliance with strict sustainability criteria, is Germany's fourth-tallest office building, standing at 200 metres (656 ft), and is the newest high-rise building to be completed in Frankfurt. The Green Building has a total rental area of around 100,000 m2 (1,076,391 ft2) and was one of the first new high-rise buildings in Europe to receive the renowned LEED Gold sustainability certification from the US Green Building Council. Other tenants of the building include the financial auditing and consulting company PwC (Pricewater-houseCoopers), the law firms Mayer Brown LLP and Dechert LLP, the company Excellent Business Center, CBRE Global Investors and the Frankfurt Branch of Australia New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ Bank).

CA Immo completed Tower 185 at the beginning of 2012, and at the end of 2013 around two-thirds of it were sold to two institutional investors. CA Immo retains the remaining third in its asset portfolio, and it is also responsible for the building's asset management. DRG Immobilien, a subsidiary of CA Immo, manages the property.

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In the last few days, Hamborner REIT AG has signed an agreement to buy an office property in Aachen. The five‐story administrative centre is part of an urban development a few kilometres from Aachen’s city centre and is currently under construction. When completed at the end of this year, the property will have a rental area of around 10,000 square metres. The main tenant with a long‐term lease is a public sector facility. The purchase price is around €27 million and the gross initial yield will be approximately 6.33%. Ownership is expected to transfer at the start of 2015. The broker was JLL.

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The Supervisory Board of Berlin Hyp AG, Berlin, has decided on the early extension of Roman Berninger’s Board of Management Contract, which was due to expire in December 2014, for a further five years until 2019.

Berninger first joined Berlin Hyp as Managing Director in 2008 and was appointed to the Board of Management in 2009, where he is responsible for the Finance, Risk Controlling, Organisation/IT, Internal Audit and Banking Operations Divisions. Berlin Hyp’s Board of Management therefore continues to comprise Jan Bettink (Chairman), Gero Bergmann and Roman Berninger. Dr. Michael Schieble is Managing Director.

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Gibraltar Limited Partnership (a 50:50 joint venture between Hercules Unit Trust HUT and The Crown Estate) announces the sale of Leamington Shopping Park to Ignis UK Property Fund for £72 million, representing a net initial yield of 4.4%. Gibraltar represented itself. Ignis was represented by CWM Out of Town LLP. HUT is advised by British Land and managed by Schroders.

British Land, the scheme's property adviser, has transformed the scheme from a traditional bulky goods retail park into a fashion-led shopping park. The scheme was extensively refurbished in 2009 and almost every unit has been either re-let or reconfigured. Debenhams opened a department store in October 2013 and Caffe Nero took its first out-of-town unit at the park. The original line-up included Focus, MFI, Harveys and Rosebys. Occupiers now include anchor Debenhams, Outfit, Next, New Look, Mamas & Papas, Boots, Clarks and Frankie & Benny's.

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Employment and training specialist Seetec has taken a new lease on part of the first floor at the Quorum, one of Bristol’s prominent office buildings owned by Aviva Investors, in a deal negotiated by Colliers International.

The five-storey office building on Bond Street in the heart of the city’s commercial district has been refurbished to provide quality office accommodation at a highly competitive rent.

James Preece, a director at Colliers International’s Bristol office, said Seetec had taken 4,014 sq ft on a five year lease.

Formerly occupied by several departments from Bristol City Council, Quorum is home to several major players including Echo Managed Services, Hogg Robinson, Clarity OSS, Camcode and Planglow.

With its ideal position beside the inner circuit ring road, Quorum provides excellent access to the M32 and motorway network and is less than ten minutes’ walk from Temple Meads.

Chris Meredith a Director from joint agent Savills, said: “Q1 take-up highlighted increased activity, especially in the sub-3,000 sq ft bracket.

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British Land announces today that 18,534 sq ft has been let to hedge fund Arrowgrass Capital Partners at 10 Portman Square. They will occupy the whole of the third floor in the building.

10 Portman Square provides 113,700 sq ft of Grade A office space over seven floors. The letting, with Arrowgrass Capital Partners joining existing occupiers Aramco and Aspect Capital, means the building is now 70% let.

10 Portman Square, when completed last year, was part of British Land's successful 2010 Development Programme comprising 2.7 million sq ft principally in London. With 76% of the space already let or under offer, the well timed development programme has already generated £608 million of profit to date with a further £45 million estimated to come.

Knight Frank and JLL represented British Land. CBRE represented Arrowgrass Capital Partners.

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Hermes Real Estate has announced the sale of a major high street retail unit to a client of CBRE Global Investors. 21/23A Tavern Street, which is let to H&M, was sold for £8.4 million.

The 22,000 sq ft, three floor unit is primarily located in the main retail district in Ipswich on the corner of the pedestrianised Tavern Street and Tower Street. The building is entirely let to H&M, who hold the lease until December 2021.

Chris Taylor, Chief Executive, Hermes Real Estate commented:
“The disposal of 21/23A Tavern Street is consistent with our approach of maximising returns through strategic sales at the right point in the market cycle as well as the refocusing of our portfolio towards our core investments.”

Jackson Criss acted for Hermes Real Estate and Fawcett Mead acted for CBRE Global Investors.

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Aviva Investors, advised by BNPPRE, has leased the final available unit at Boyatt Wood Industrial Estate, Eastleigh, to Charles Kendall Freight.

Charles Kendall Freight, which offers bespoke supply chain management solutions, has secured unit 7, a 10,576 sq ft warehouse, after signing a 10 year lease with a five year break clause.

In 2013, BNP Paribas Real Estate leased unit 3 at Boyatt Wood Industrial Estate to a new business, Direct to Home, which is trading as Jamie at Home, following a full refurbishment.

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Max Property has agreed to pre-let 75,780 sq ft of office accommodation at Commodity Quay on a 15 year lease without break at an average rent of £46.50psf to Clarksons Plc, a provider of integrated shipping services. Rentals range from £43psf to £50psf with higher rents achieved on the higher floors. The 140,000 sq ft new refurbishment at St Katharine Docks contains 127,000 sq ft of offices, is nearing completion and will be launched in June 2014.

The letting follows the recent 22,000 sq ft pre-let also at Commodity Quay to Six Degrees Group, the specialist integrated managed communications service company, and several lettings at the nearby 210,000 sq ft International House, which is now fully let.

MPG were advised by Savills and Clarksons Plc by CBRE and J Peiser Wainwright.

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Christophe Gay joins Cushman & Wakefield France today as Associate Consultant and Head of the Paris Region division.

Christophe Gay has 15 years experience in commercial real estate. His mission is to develop the activities of the Paris Region team within the Offices Department and further strengthen Cushman & Wakefield´s relationships with occupiers and landlords.

With a team of 40 professionals, the Offices department of Cushman & Wakefield France is organized into four main sectors: a team dedicated to Paris CBD and the Left Bank under the responsibility of Nicolas Treich, the Paris Region team under the responsibility of Christopher Gay and the Key Accounts and the Landlord Representation divisions, both under the responsibility of Ludovic Delaisse, Head of the Offices department.

A graduate of ESG and with a degree in International Business and European Marketing, Gay previously worked at DBX Conseil as Associate Director in charge of the North-West sector of Ile-de-France from October 2008. Prior to this, he worked at BNP Real Estate as Key Account Consultant and at DTZ as Director of the North.

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