DLA Piper advises Allianz Real Estate and BVK Fund on acquisition of Edge East Side Berlin

DLA Piper has advised a joint venture comprising Allianz Real Estate and a Bayerische Versorgungskammer (BVK) fund, managed by Universal-Investment, on the acquisition of the project Edge East Side Berlin. The purchase is the first equity transaction in which an institutional third-party investor participates alongside Allianz and in which Allianz Real Estate acquires and manages the asset.

The Edge East Side Berlin project will be a 140 m high building with 65,000 sqm floor space on 36 floors. The building, which is due to be completed by 2023, will be built in the Berlin district “Mediaspree” according to the plans of the architectural firm Bjarke Ingels Group.

Allianz Real Estate is the captive investment and asset manager for real estate within Allianz Group. It develops and executes tailored investment strategies for the Allianz Group, focusing on direct and indirect equity globally and commercial real estate loans in Europe and the U.S. As of June 30, 2019, it had EUR67.1 billion assets under management.

The DLA Piper team was jointly led by partners Christian Lonquich (Real Estate) and Dr Marie-Theres Rämer (Tax), and also comprised partners Fabian Mühlen, Dr Florian Biesalski (both Real Estate), Dr Torsten Pokropp, Mike Danielewsky (both Finance, Projects & Restructuring), Semin O (Antitrust), Dr Roland Maaß (Capital Markets, all Frankfurt) and Dr Jan Geert Meents (IPT, Munich), counsel Dr Enno Ahlenstiel (Antitrust, Cologne), senior associates Carla Nicolai (Real Estate), Martin Wilmsen (Finance, Projects & Restructuring), Juliane Hack (Capital Markets, all Frankfurt) and Wiebke Jakob (IPT, Munich) as well as associates Sascha Ryssok, Konstantin Decker-Horz (both Real Estate), Eda Altintas (Tax), Dr Martin Kaltwasser (Finance, Projects & Restructuring), David Klock (Antitrust, all Frankfurt) and Fabian Hafenbrädl (all IPT, Munich).

The in-house team at Allianz Real Estate was led by Dr Markus Trotter-Melitz, Isabel Haupt (both Legal) and Thomas Vana (Tax).

Allianz Real Estate recently acquired the 15-story EDGE Hafencity office property in Hamburg's HafenCity. A DLA Piper team jointly led by partners Christian Lonquich and Dr Marie-Theres Rämer also advised on this transaction.