Meyer Bergman’s second real estate fund has sold a mixed-use high street building in Central Oslo following refurbishment and a lease-up campaign that eliminated the property’s 30% vacancy.
The buyer is Canica Eiendom, a privately owned Norwegian real estate investment company. The price is not being disclosed.
Meyer Bergman European Retail Partners II, the value-add fund established by the London-based firm, acquired the 6,500 square metre Grensen 17 building in late 2014. Grensen is the street that runs parallel to Karl Johans Gate, Oslo’s prime retail destination running through the centre of the Promenaden Fashion District.
Fredrik Kumlin, Meyer Bergman’s Managing Director for the Nordic Region, said: “Grensen 17 was the first investment by our funds in Central Oslo and was the forerunner to our purchase of the Promenaden portfolio, just over a year later. Oslo enjoys strong fundamentals as one of Europe’s wealthiest and fastest-growing capitals, so there is a lot of demand from brands looking to open there. We successfully repositioned this property and felt it was the right time to crystallise the returns for our investors.”
Meyer Bergman refurbished and extended the façade at Grensen 17 to create more retail space as well as installing the new copper roof cladding. It divided one of the ground floor stores to create three smaller, more flexible retail units, which it leased to Pink Fish, Normal and Cutters. Meyer Bergman also successfully leased up the top five floors of the building after renovating the space for office tenants.
Advising the fund on the sale were Thommessen (legal), while Canica’s advisers were Haavind (legal), Akershus Eiendom (commercial) KWC (tax and financial) and BER (technical).
RPA Perspective Norwegian retail sales rose for a third consecutive month in May and was significantly stronger than expected by economists, supporting the central bank’s plan to hike rates in September.
Seasonally adjusted retail sales jumped 1.8% in May from April, Statistics Norway said, against expectations in a Reuters poll of a 0.3% rise.
Growth for the previous month was meanwhile revised upwards to 0.7% from 0.6%.
“The figures are volatile, but in isolation they support Norges Bank’s view that rates should rise from September,” DNB Markets economist Kyrre Aamdal said.
The Norwegian deposit rate is at a record-low of 0.50%, and the central bank plans to tighten policy as the economy continues to recover from a slump.
Separately, the broader goods consumption index grew by just 0.1 percent in May, slowed down by a drop in electricity consumption due to unseasonably warm weather.
