AEW’s urban logistics allocation reaches €200 million

AEW has pressed the accelerator on urban logistics in Europe with an allocation of €200 million to the sector and it plans further investments this year.

The real estate investment and asset manager yesterday announced that it has purchased Hamburg North Park and Eco-City Hub in Colombes, Paris, for a total of €75 million.

The new acquisitions, on behalf of Ullis, its urban logistics and light industrial fund, bring the total amount of capital allocated to the fund to €200 million across France and Germany in the space of 10 months since the fund was launched in March 2021.

Hamburg North Park comprises an existing fully-let 12,300 sq m logistics asset and 19,300 sq m of development land which is located in Nordestedt, north of Hamburg. The Ullis fund plans to develop a prime multi-let, light industrial and city distribution park on the land with one of its historical development partners.

Eco-City Hub consists of an 8,600 sq m brand-new multi-storey city distribution asset located in Colombes, within the French capital’s highly supply-constrained first ring market which offers direct access to the A86 motorway.

“Our first investments reflect the DNA of the fund, with an investment strategy mainly focused on build-to-core projects with the conversion of obsolete buildings and the regeneration of brownfield land into high-quality light industrial and logistics facilities,” said Stéphane Bernard, fund manager, Ullis.

AEW plans to continue investing in the sector and has already identified some opportunities in the three European countries it is focusing on.

“Ullis aims to build a large core portfolio of urban logistics and light industrial assets in major metropolitan areas of France, Germany and the Netherlands,” said Bernard. “Our investment pipeline for 2022 is strong and we look forward to further expanding the platform with our local teams and development partners in Europe.”

AEW, the real estate asset management platform of Natixis Investment Managers, has AUM of €77.4 billion globally and €36.9 billion in Europe on behalf of a number of funds and separate accounts.