LaSalle Investment Buys Amsterdam Office Tower for $63M

By Barbra Murray

Luna Arena

LaSalle Investment Management Inc. continues to enhance the footprint of its Encore+ fund with the acquisition of Luna Arena, a Class A office asset in Amsterdam. LaSalle purchased the 167,900-square-foot building from PingProperties for €55.6 million, or approximately $63 million.

Luna Arena is LaSalle’s first acquisition for Encore+ since becoming sole owner of the 12-year-old, open-ended Continental European real estate investment vehicle in mid-November of this year. The nine-story office tower fits the fund’s acquisition criteria: Robust assets providing strong income growth in sustainable locations.

“This is a great acquisition for Encore+ fund in an area of Amsterdam where the fundamentals are good and continue to improve,” David Ironside, fund manager of the Encore+ fund at LaSalle Investment Management, said in a prepared statement.

Located at Herikerbergweg 120 in the Plaza Arena office complex in Amsterdam South East, Luna Arena welcomed its first office occupants in 2008. The property comes under new ownership with a full tenant roster that includes professional services firm TMF Group and U.S. medical technology company Stryker Corp., both of which maintain their regional headquarters in the building. 

Commercial real estate services firms Savills represented LaSalle in the Luna Arena transaction. JLL represented PingProperties, which had owned the office asset since 2010.

Dutch expansion

LaSalle’s acquisition activity in the Netherlands on behalf of Encore+, which owns three other assets in Amsterdam and Eindhoven, is only going to increase. “Across [Amsterdam] we have seen that office investment volumes have remained particularly buoyant in recent years. As a result, we have sought to increase our exposure to Dutch offices,” Ironside said.

LaSalle, however, will face growing competition for office assets—and other commercial real estate property types—in the Netherlands. Ongoing economic growth and positive outlook in the region have spurred greater interest among investors, according to a mid-year 2018 report by Savills, resulting in a shortage of opportunities, decreasing yields and rising prices. By the close of the second quarter, office investment had reached $3.5 billion.

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