Nuveen Real Estate completes purchase of landmark new office development, cube berlin, on behalf of its European Cities strategy

Nuveen Real Estate, one of the largest investment managers in the world, has finalised its acquisition of cube berlin, a 17,500 sq m (c. 188,000 sq ft) office asset in the heart of the city, following the completion of the development in February 2020.

The firm's European Cities strategy committed to the project in December 2016 due to its excellent location, accessibility and commitment to the highest standards in sustainability and technology. The building has already achieved WiredScore 'Platinum' certification, one of the first assets in Germany to attain this, and is also expected to achieve a DGNB 'Gold' rating. The asset is a fully digitalised 'Smart Building', which includes intelligent heating, cooling and lighting systems, as well as offering a tenant app that can be used to create room bookings and for internal communications.

The strategy now owns 14 assets spanning retail, office and logistics across key, gateway cities in Europe with a total GAV of c. €2 billion.

The development is located between the Parliament Quarter and the Hauptbahnhof, next to the River Spree. This is part of a long-term regeneration area called 'Europacity' and is one of the most important development areas in Berlin. The asset is 100% pre-let, to tenants including Deutsche Bahn AG, Gleiss Lutz and RA Micro.

"cube berlin presented a rare and exciting opportunity to purchase a prime office building in one of the European Cities strategy's key investment cities. Its high-quality, sustainable fit-out specification is also well aligned with our objective to create and protect assets for tomorrow's world. Office supply in Berlin has been constrained in recent years, particularly for Grade-A space, so this new development makes a welcome addition. The finished asset provides what we believe to be one of the smartest office buildings in Berlin and provides much-needed modern office space in the city," comments Liz Sworn, Fund Manager, Nuveen Real Estate.

The developer was CA Immo, a listed Austrian property company with a significant track record in the development, leasing and management of high-quality office buildings. Founded in 1987, CA Immo controls property assets of around €5.2 billion in Germany, Austria and Eastern Europe. Nuveen Real Estate's experienced Development Management Services team oversaw the project.

Nuveen Real Estate's European Cities strategy forms part of the firm's global resilient series, which focuses on investing in high-quality assets in 'future-proof' cities that are well-positioned in terms of long-term structural trends, including demographic change, urbanisation and technology and in doing so, possibly delivers attractive, risk-adjusted returns to investors.

As part of this series, Nuveen Real Estate also manages an Asia Pacific strategy, as well as four sector-specific strategies in the U.S., which are all underpinned by the same cities-focused approach. Across its global resilient series, the firm manages over US$5 billion of assets in over 35 leading resilient cities globally.

Nuveen Real Estate was advised by Dentons (debt financing), Allen & Overy (legal, tax and structuring), EY (financial) and Apleona and KVL (technical).