Real estate investor and manager, Cromwell Property Group (ASX:CMW) (Cromwell) welcomes Thomas Kal into Cromwell’s Investment Management Benelux team. He will be based in Amsterdam.

Thomas joins Cromwell after working at JLL for the past six years, initially as a Junior Advisor, before progressing through to Director of Research in 2019. He has extensive knowledge of the logistics and light industrial, office and residential sectors.

Thomas Kal commented, “I am excited to work alongside Gijs Vissers, Cromwell’s Head of Investment Management Benelux, as we continue to implement our growth strategy through strategic asset acquisitions and disposals within the office and logistic sector in order to deliver great returns for investors and capital partners.”

Wouter Zwetsloot, Cromwell’s Head of Benelux and Real Estate Europe, commented, “We are pleased to welcome Thomas who will be a great addition to the team in our drive to increase assets under management and as we move to launch a number of new strategies later in the year.”

Thomas holds a master’s degree in Business Geography and a bachelor’s degree in Human Geography and Planning, both from the Utrecht University.

Real estate investor and manager, Cromwell Property Group (Cromwell) has completed the sale of five industrial assets in Finland for €11.6 million on behalf of a capital partner.

With a total net lettable area of 20,000 sqm, the portfolio of multi-tenanted light industrial assets are all located close to Finland’s major metropolitan and industrial areas including Helsinki, Espoo, Tampere and Oulu, ensuring good access to key roads and transport links.

The properties are currently occupied by 28 tenants, including Bosch Rexroth and Oerlikon Balzers Coating Finland.

Pontus Flemme Gärdsell, Cromwell’s Head of Nordics, said: “To have completed the sale of this portfolio so smoothly demonstrates the competitiveness of the market for this asset type, as well as the advantages of having on-the-ground country teams who understand the underlying regional markets.

“We look forward to continuing to seek both attractive acquisition and disposal opportunities that will generate great results for our different investors and capital partners.”

Real estate investor and manager Cromwell Property Group (Cromwell) has, on behalf of Cromwell European REIT (CEREIT), completed the acquisition of a portfolio of 11 logistics and light industrial properties in Czech Republic and Slovakia for an aggregate purchase price of €113.2 million.

CEREIT’s acquisition is one of the largest deals of its type in the region and grows Cromwell’s real estate platform in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) specifically in Czech Republic and Slovakia. Both markets are expected to benefit from further integration with neighbouring Western European economies with forecast 4.0% GDP growth in Czech Republic and 5.3% in Slovakia in the next year.¹

Mr Simon Garing, CEO of the Manager of CEREIT, commented, “We are pleased to be able to complete the acquisition of the portfolio, despite continued pandemic disruptions across Europe.”

“Our current focus is on increasing our weighting towards the logistics and light industrial sector and this acquisition takes us to 38%. Importantly, CEREIT now also has a presence in two new attractive high-growth markets.”

“I’d like to thank the transactions and asset management teams at our sponsor, Cromwell, as well as Robert and everyone at Arete for working positively to make this transaction happen,” he added.

David Svoboda, Cromwell’s Head of Asset Management for Czech Republic and Slovakia commented, “We have been active in the wider CEE region for ten years and are now successfully managing more than €1 billion in gross assets for a range of different capital partners.”

“We are focused on ensuring a smooth handover from Arete, welcoming the tenant-customers to the Cromwell family and ensuring they receive the excellent service they are used to,” he concluded.

Robert Ides, Arete Co-founder commented, “Working with Simon and the whole Cromwell team has been a pleasure particularly on such a complex transaction while we are all still feeling the impacts of COVID-19. This is a clear sign of the professionalism of both teams and the similar values and focus on our investors that we both share. It has been an honour to work together.”

The properties are all freehold, almost 100% occupied by 17 mostly logistics tenant-customers and featuring a long-weighted average lease expiry (“WALE”) of 6.2 years. They span more than 125,000 square metres of modern construction logistics and light industrial properties and are located in good micro-locations in established business parks with access to major transport links. The portfolio also features three assets with a total of approximately 140,700 sqm of land permitted for development.

¹ Source: Oxford Economics

Real estate investor and manager, Cromwell Property Group (Cromwell), has announced that it has sold the first office building at Kildean Business Park for £22 million to Aviva Investors on behalf of the Stirling Development Agency (SDA), Cromwell’s joint venture with Stirling Council.

Cromwell’s Head of UK, Matthew Bird, commented, “The office development at Kildean Business Park is a great project, which we believe provides a template for future office developments in the future and adds to Cromwell’s significant pipeline of development projects throughout Europe and Australia.”

“Upon completion, the building will incorporate a range of measures to ensure staff wellbeing and is designed to score highly against a number of key environmental and sustainability benchmarks.”

“We are delighted to have been able to complete this transaction with Aviva Investors, which marks another important milestone in our long-term strategy with Stirling Council and the Stirling Development Agency. Cromwell has been retained by Aviva to undertake the development and benefit from Cromwell’s 40-year track record in the UK and European development in the office, logistics, living and mixed-use sectors,” concluded Mr Bird.

With an estimated completion date of mid-2022, the 77,000 sq ft (7,150 sqm) building is part of a series of planned developments at the 340,000 sq ft (31,600 sqm) business park located near Stirling, an area traditionally popular with financial services and life sciences companies in Scotland’s Central Belt.

The building has been designed to meet stringent ESG objectives and is targeting a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating, in part through the use of a number of zero and low-carbon technologies. The business park links into the local cycle network and ample covered cycle spaces, lockers and shower facilities will be provided within the building.

Cromwell announced in January 2021 that M&G Plc signed a 20-year sole occupancy lease for the building.

Real estate investor and manager, Cromwell Property Group (Cromwell), has today announced the promotion of Patrick Lowe to Head of Transactions, Europe.

In this role, Patrick will lead the European Transactions team in their efforts to source and execute on and off-market single-asset and portfolio deals using Cromwell’s extensive pan-European network and access to local knowledge. In addition to his new responsibilities, Patrick will continue be responsible for all transactions on behalf of Cromwell European REIT (CEREIT).

Patrick joined Cromwell ten years ago as a financial analyst and since then has progressed through the organisation, gaining experience across several important functions including Treasury Manager, Assistant Fund Manager and Senior Portfolio Manager. His most recent role was Senior Transactions Manager, working exclusively for CEREIT, where he led multiple complex transactions totalling in excess of €800 million across eight jurisdictions.

Robert Cotterell, Head of Investment, Europe at Cromwell Property Group, commented, “We take great pride in being able to promote from the strong depth of talent within the organisation. Patrick’s extensive experience working in the European real estate investment sector and the trusted relationships he has developed with our investors make him an invaluable member of the team.

I look forward to working with him to uncover and secure more European investment opportunities.”

Patrick Lowe, Head of Transactions, Europe at Cromwell Property Group said, “Through our extensive presence across Europe we have been able to source a breadth of opportunities for our investor partners in terms of sector, jurisdiction and risk profile as well as capitalising on various themes we find compelling.”

“This was most recently evidenced by us closing the 156,000 sqm intermodal logistics park CLOM in Italy for CEREIT in December. I look forward to delivering similar results for our investors in the future,” he added.

Patrick has an MSc in Real Estate Investment and Finance from Henley Business School and a BA Hons from the University of Manchester.

Real estate investor and manager, Cromwell Property Group (Cromwell) has confirmed that M&G Plc has signed a 20-year sole occupancy lease on a proposed new office building at Kildean Business Park in Scotland.

The building will be developed by the Stirling Development Agency (SDA), Cromwell’s joint venture with Stirling Council. With an estimated completion date of mid-2022, the 77,000 sqft building is part of a series of planned developments at the 340,000 sqft Business Park located near Stirling, an area traditionally popular with financial services and life sciences companies in Scotland’s Central Belt.

The building has been designed to meet stringent ESG objectives and is targeting an ‘excellent’ BREEAM rating, in part through the use of a number of zero and low carbon technologies. The Business Park links into the local cycle network and ample covered cycle spaces, lockers and shower facilities will be provided within the building.

Prior to this lease being signed, SDA had already secured the development of a Marston’s pub and restaurant, a hotel, Starbucks drive-thru and a petrol station at the Business Park.

Matthew Bird, Head of UK at Cromwell Property Group, commented, “To have pre-let the first office building is a testament to SDA’s vision for Kildean Business Park. A focus on creating space with strong ESG credentials and which also serves the health and wellbeing needs of its occupiers aligns with how we see the future of the office post COVID-19.

“We are also pleased to be continuing our 20-year partnership with Stirling Council to bring further jobs and opportunities to the local region.”

David Lawrence, Head of UK Project Management at Cromwell Property Group and SDA Director, added, “We are delighted to be able to welcome M&G Plc as our first office tenant at Kildean Business Park. This is a fantastic example of how public / private partnerships such as the one between Cromwell and Stirling Council can successfully boost the prosperity of a local economy over a prolonged period of time, and on multiple projects.

“We look forward to welcoming further occupiers to the Park,” he concluded.

Stirling Council Leader, Councillor Scott Farmer said, “This is fantastic news which underlines Stirling’s reputation as a prime location to attract and retain business investment.

“M&G Plc has been a cherished part of the fabric of this city since 1997 and this commitment to another 20 years will open up even greater employment opportunities for the people of Stirling.

“With COVID-19 creating business and employment uncertainty, this decision will come as a massive relief to local families and we are delighted to see SDA securing additional investment for the region.”

Real estate investor and manager, Cromwell Property Group (Cromwell) and York Capital Management (York) have sold the final asset from the Cromwell Netherlands Diversified Partnership (CNDP). The asset, Woonboulevard Westpoort, which comprises 26,000 sqm of retail space let to a variety of homeware and DIY tenants, has been sold to Lenferink Groep Zwolle.

CNDP was launched in 2014 with a mandate to build a diversified portfolio of Dutch assets. The Fund invested in office, industrial and out-of-town retail sectors and acquired high quality, well located real estate across The Netherlands, targeting both single assets and portfolios.

The Fund has deployed in excess of €350 million of capital since its launch, acquiring Woonboulevard Westpoort and several large office buildings, including the landmark office ‘The Mark’ in Rotterdam.

Wouter Zwetsloot, Cromwell’s Head of Real Estate, Europe said: “The sale of Woonboulevard Westpoort marks the successful completion of the sell-down of all assets in the CNDP portfolio.”

“CNDP has provided outstanding returns since its launch in 2014 and its success is a testament to the ability of our local investment team to source the right opportunities and work alongside our property team to increase the value of assets through active asset management initiatives.”

“We look forward to continuing to deliver more of these types of results for our investors and capital partners,” he concluded.

Real estate investor and manager, Cromwell Property Group (ASX:CMW) (Cromwell), through its local in-country and pan-European teams, completed an off-market acquisition of CLOM (Centro Logistico Orlando Marconi), an intermodal logistics park located in Italy, for Cromwell European REIT (CEREIT) on Wednesday 23 December 2020. The park has been acquired by Cromwell EREIT Management Pte. Ltd., the Manager of CEREIT.

The park contains net lettable area (NLA) totalling 156,888 sqm and is located on a 421,703 sqm site. Constructed in stages between 1995 and 2006, the site is comprised of nine warehouses, of which 18,000 sqm is cold storage, and an office building.

The site also contains a railway line with four tracks, each approximately 1 km long, with direct loading platforms and a freight terminal connected to the national railway service.

“Logistics is a sector we think has strong and enduring characteristics and we are seeing opportunities in most of the countries in which we operate,” said Cromwell’s Head of Investment, Europe, Robert Cotterell.

“COVID-19 has impacted consumer behaviour and we believe it has pulled future e-commerce and online growth forward, giving impetus to the broader sector.”

“Our on-the-ground country teams ably supported by our multi-jurisdictional platform experts can source and structure opportunities to meet the bespoke requirements of any investor,” he concluded.

Lorenzo Caroleo, Cromwell’s Head of Italy, added, “The general uncertainty we are experiencing favours those investors which are agile and have a flexible capital structure. CEREIT has a track record in Italy and is familiar with the environment and was able to move swiftly and make a compelling offer to the seller.”

“The park is well let to strong tenants while the location offers growth prospects thanks to the great accessibility and the presence of many manufacturing companies in that area of Central Italy.”

“Just a couple of months after the successful acquisition of the DHL portfolio, this transaction confirms the ability of our local team to identify the right investments for our capital partners. We will continue to deploy capital as the opportunities arise,” Mr Caroleo concluded.

The park is in the municipality of Ascoli Piceno, in Monteprandone in central Italy, along the eastern coast. It is in close proximity to the A14/E55 motorway which connects Bologna to Bari and, more broadly, is the main highway connecting Greece to Denmark. The asset is over 99% leased to a diverse tenant-customer base consisting of 24 different occupiers and is the largest logistics hub in one of Italy’s key trade corridors.

Orlando Sciocchetti, asset manager of the park, and part of the owning family, commented, “CLOM’s roots go deep into our family’s entrepreneurial history, specifically of my grandfather Orlando Marconi, of whom the park bears the name. We are very glad to have encountered such a top flight and very experienced counterpart such as Cromwell, who we are confident will ensure continuity and at the same time will be able to further develop the park to prepare it for future challenges in the national logistics environment.”

CEO of the Manager of CEREIT, Simon Garing, added, “The deal was secured off-market, once again bearing testament to the sourcing capabilities of our sponsor’s extensive on-the-ground European team.”

“The logistics park is expected to generate stable and recurring cash flows with scope for further rental upside and will increase CEREIT’s exposure to the resilient logistics sector, which is consistent with our stated purpose of delivering long-term distribution and net asset value per unit growth to unitholders.”

Real estate investor and manager, Cromwell Property Group (Cromwell) announces the appointment of Gijs Vissers as Head of Investment Management Benelux, based in Cromwell’s Amsterdam office.

Prior to joining Cromwell, Gijs gained significant transaction experience as Associate Director at Cushman & Wakefield’s Office Capital Markets team. He has also spent over eight years with JLL in a number of different roles, the latest being Director in their Capital Markets division. Gijs holds a master’s degree in law from Leiden University.

As Head of Investment Management, Gijs will be responsible for leading the growth strategy in the Benelux, including the disposal and acquisition of assets in the region.

Wouter Zwetsloot, Head of Benelux and Real Estate Europe at Cromwell Property Group, commented,“I am looking forward to work alongside Gijs. With his expertise in the Benelux market Gijs will be working with our team to deliver our ambitious growth plans and ‘Invest-to Manage’ strategy.”