Rotterdam World Trade Center and Amsterdam’s Citroën Buildings Sold

By Balazs Szekely, Associate Editor

Rotterdam & Amsterdam, The Netherlands–Rotterdam World Trade Center and the Citroën buildings in south Amsterdam changed hands recently, around the end of last year. Institutional real estate investment manager Bouwinvest Real Estate Investment Management B.V.’s Dutch Office Fund acquired the properties.

Also known as Beurs-World Trade Center, the Rotterdam facility is located on the Coolsingel, one of the best-known streets in the center of Rotterdam, across the Holland Art Galleri and De Bijenkorf. It is a major business center with approximately 200 offices, member of the international World Trade Centers Association. The building was purchased from listed holding company Beurs-WTC, which is 50 percent-owned by the city’s municipality. It comprises around 398,000 square feet of offices, congress and events center of over 75,000 square feet, 29 retail shops on 86,000 square feet, as well as 21,500 square feet for other commercial uses. It also has 467 underground parking lots.

The two Citroën buildings, located directly adjacent to Amsterdam’s 1928 Olympic Stadium on the Stadionplein, were acquired from Citroën Nederland and Peak Development assisted Bouwinvest with the purchase. According to the buyer, the two buildings comprise a total of 270,000 square feet. The new ownership plans to redevelop the assets for multifunctional office, retail and restaurant use. Construction will start after July 2016 to avoid disrupting the European Athletics Championships, which will be staged in the Olympic Stadium. The refurbishment project will be conducted in close cooperation with the municipality of Amsterdam to preserve important architectural features. The buildings are expected to reopen in 2017

Bouwinvest is specialized in managing real estate portfolios for institutional investors. With over $7.6 billion worth of assets under management, the firm’s strategy is to diversify its portfolio across the major cities in the Randstad conurbation of the Netherlands. The two most recent deals bring the company’s total investments in Dutch real estate to about $728.6 million and overall globally to over $1.34 billion in 2014.