CBRE Investment Management secures logistics park near Berlin for Zurich Insurance

CBRE Investment Management, on behalf of Zurich Insurance Group Germany, has acquired, in an off-market transaction, the 39,110 sq m Log Plaza logistics park in Grossbeeren, 25-minutes’ drive from Berlin city centre. The seller is a wholly owned subsidiary of OSMAB Holding AG.

Log Plaza is located on a 75,250 sq m plot at An der Anhalter Bahn 2. It encompasses four units in two buildings with 37,315 sq m of logistics and 1,796 sq m of office and communal spaces. It also offers 64 parking lots for cars and five for lorries. Tenants include shipping company Weidler Spedition, pharma logistics provider Unitax-Pharmalogistik and overnight shipping company Innight Express Germany.

The park was built in 2018 and 2019 by developer ALCARO Invest and was sustainably designed with excellent energy efficiency features and charging stations for e-bikes and electric cars. A photovoltaic facility for on-site electricity production will be added to the roof.

The logistics park is located next to the GVZ Grossbeeren freight village for cargo handling on site and connected to federal highway 101, which links to Berlin’s city centre and to the A10 ring motorway around the German capital. With a bus station only 300 metres from the site, it also offers excellent public transports connection.

Riccardo Cobianchi, Head of Real Estate, Zurich Insurance Group Germany commented: “The acquisition of Log Plaza marks Zurich's fourth investment in logistics in Europe and the second one in Germany. We expect the sector to outperform over the next few years driven by structural tailwinds, and, as part of our real estate investment strategy, we will continue to target properties in the logistics sector with strong sustainability credentials in core markets across Europe.”

“We are delighted to have partnered with Zurich on their second logistics acquisition near Berlin. New supply so close to the capital is extremely limited so that tenant demand for modern logistics properties such as Log Plaza continues to soar,” added Sebastian Ehrhardt, Head of Transactions DACH, CBRE Investment Management.

At the end of last year, CBRE Investment Management acquired the 158,510 sq m Airpark Berlin, a state-of-the-art logistics park only 30 minutes from the central Mitte district. The transaction marked Zurich’s first ever logistics investment.

CBRE Investment Management was advised by BNP Paribas Real Estate, CBRE (technical) and law firm Goodwin Proctor.

Zurich Insurance Group
Zurich Insurance Group (Zurich) is a leading multi-line insurer that serves its customers in global and local markets. With about 55,000 employees, it provides a wide range of property and casualty, and life insurance products and services in more than 215 countries and territories. Zurich’s customers include individuals, small businesses, and mid-sized and large companies, as well as multinational corporations. The Group is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, where it was founded in 1872. The holding company, Zurich Insurance Group Ltd (ZURN), is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange and has a level I American Depositary Receipt (ZURVY) program, which is traded over-the-counter on OTCQX. Further information about Zurich is available at www.zurich.com.

About CBRE Investment Management
CBRE Investment Management is a leading global real assets investment management firm with $129.1 billion in AUM* as of June 30, 2021, operating in more than 30 offices and 20 countries around the world. Through its investor-operator culture, the firm seeks to deliver sustainable investment solutions across real assets categories, geographies, risk profiles and execution formats so that its clients, people and communities thrive.

CBRE Investment Management is an independently operated affiliate of CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBRE), the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm (based on 2020 revenue). CBRE has more than 100,000 employees serving clients in more than 100 countries. CBRE Investment Management harnesses CBRE’s data and market insights, investment sourcing and other resources for the benefit of its clients. For more information, please visit www.cbreim.com.

*AUM refers to the assets under management, fair market value of real assets-related investments with respect to which CBRE Investment Management provides, on a global basis, oversight, investment management services and other advice and which generally consist of investments in real assets; equity in funds and joint ventures; securities portfolios; operating companies and real assets-related loans. This AUM is intended principally to reflect the extent of CBRE Investment Management’s presence in the global real assets market, and its calculation of AUM may differ from the calculations of other asset managers and from its calculation of regulatory assets under management for purposes of certain regulatory filings.