HIH Invest acquires ‘Marktpassage Neheim’ in Arnsberg
HIH Invest Real Estate (HIH Invest) has acquired an inner-city, mixed-use local shopping centre in Arnsberg in North Rhine-Westphalia. The seller of the fully let property with around 9,000 square metres of rental space is a local project developer. Built in 1988, the two-storey building was completely refurbished between 2018 and 2020 and has 14 shops as well as office and residential units. A multi-storey car park with 165 parking spaces is available to customers and tenants. The anchor tenants are the local supermarket Edeka, the textile discounter Woolworth and the non-food discounter Tedi as well as the Arnsberg municipal library and a tax consultancy. The weighted average lease term (WAULT) is 7.6 years.
With a population of around 23,000, Neheim is the largest district of Arnsberg and has the only pedestrian zone in the town. The Marktpassage is located in the centre of Neheim, directly on the market square and at the head of the pedestrian zone, which attracts customers from Arnsberg and the surrounding area with chain shops from H&M, C&A, New Yorker, Rituals, Douglas and Fielmann. There are also numerous catering and public facilities in the immediate vicinity, as well as the central bus station. The town's largest weekly market takes place twice a week on the market square, directly at the main entrance to the local shopping centre.
Jens Nagelsmeier, Head of Transaction Management Retail & Healthcare at HIH Invest, explains: ‘The Neheim district is considered a central supply location for Arnsberg and the extended catchment area. The location and the property enjoy a high level of customer acceptance, and Arnsberg currently has no comparable retail location. Thanks to its location in the centre of Neheim, both tenants and customers can benefit from linkage effects with neighbouring uses and offers. The long-term contracts with tenants with strong credit ratings emphasise the potential and attractiveness of Marktpassage Neheim."
The property was contributed to the open-ended special AIF ‘HIH Perspektive Einzelhandel: Fokus Nahversorgung’ and the acquisition makes it the 26th property in the fund. With the purchase of the local shopping centre in Neheim, around 520 million euros in real estate assets have already been built up in the fund. The property contributes to the further portfolio expansion of the fund, which is in the final phase of investment, in line with the strategy. The allocation provides for retail parks and local shopping centres with a retail use of more than 80 percent in convenient district or suburban locations. Currently, retail utilisation across the portfolio is over 90 percent. Economically stable German locations are eligible for the Core and Core Plus risk profile. The target size per individual investment is between 10 and 40 million euros. The target performance (distribution yield) is between 4.5 and 5.5 per cent.
ES Enviro Sustain GmbH from Berlin carried out the technical due diligence. Baker Tilly Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft from Frankfurt am Main was commissioned with the legal and tax due diligence. Jones Lang LaSalle acted as broker for the transaction.
