URW partners with Bureau Veritas to label its shopping centres for hygiene, safety and environment

Giant Paris-based REIT/SIIC Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW) has announced the reinforcement of its prac- tices dedicated to the prevention of health risks within its European shopping centres, through a partnership French certification company Bureau Veritas. This partnership will aim to updating URW s guide to hygie- ne, safety and environmentt (HSE) prac- tices used in its European centres, based on the latest recommendations of health authorities. For the first time, this will be done with the assistance of epidemio- logists. Bureau Veritas will then conduct an audit of all URW s European shopping centres in order to label them.  AEW buys Paris 17th office complex for RVK mandate s first acquisition

Paris-based manager AEW has acquired from Hamburg-based Hansainvest Real Assets a 3,470 sqm office building in Paris CDB. This is AEW s first investment on behalf of RVK, a German pension fund that gave the manager a mandate in December 2019 and is deploying a core investment strategy targeting office and retail assets in France. The mandate has a total investment capacity of 250-300m with a leverage of 40-50%. Built in the 19th century but restructured to current standards, the office complex is made up of two buildings, the first of which is a nine-storey building on rue Jouffroy- d Abbans, in the 17th arrondissement of Paris, and the second on rue de Prony, which is a six-storey building.

Covid-19 crisis will hit hardest in European markets most dependent on non-domestic capital sources RCA

Real estate investment volume in Europe during 1Q20 totalled 64.bn, up 7%, but Real Capital Analytics European Capital Trends report shows the sharp slowdown in deal flows in March after the onset of the Covid-19 pande- mic, and the uptick in withdrawn transactions, signal markets are likely heading into further hefty pullbacks in activity. Thus, RCA concludes that markets most dependent on non-domestic sources of capital, broadly those in Southern and Central and Eastern Europe, potentially face the biggest declines in investment. For example, Warsaw has recorded a sharp uplift in deal volumes in the last two years, but almost all of this is from overseas investors, making it more vulnerable than other cities such as Stockholm, Frankfurt or Paris, where a large and sophisticated domestic investor base exists. As such, Paris held onto its title as Europe s largest market, while London remained at the number two position after a drop in investment, showing that some of the momentum gained at the end of 2019 seems to have dissipated. Moreover, retail is the property sector that will likely be most negatively affected by the crisis over the long term, according to RCA, which foresees the growth in investment volumes reversing in the second quarter, while capital values will continue to fall in the least favored sectors.  Hines to invest 350m in Milan in residential-led mixed-use scheme

International US-based real estate firm Hines has completed investment in the Ex Trotto area and the Ex Training Centre complex in Milan s San Siro district. The former racing track and sports complex, which has not hosted any sporting events since 2013, would be transformed. The initiative, deve- loped with a long-term strategy, would see an investment of around 350m over the next four years. The preliminary urban regeneration project, which will be submitted to the appropriate authorities in the coming months, aims to reclaim a total area of 150,000 sqm. Our investment in Milan underlines our strategy to be a leader in residential and major urban mixed-use developments in Europe, with a strong presence on the ground in key locations.

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