The Canadian-based Maplewood International Real Estate Investment Trust has confirmed it is buying four head office buildings in The Netherlands for a total of €55m.
All four properties — with a total foorspace of 254,552sq ft — are occupied by single tenants and used as global or European headquarters. There acquisition is in line with the Ontario company’s strategy of using Holland as an gateway into Europe’s high-quality office and commercial property market.
“I am delighted that these acquisitions will reinforce our unique investment theme of acquiring high-quality, long-term leased commercial properties in the Netherlands,” said Kursat Kacira, Maplewood’s chief executive officer. “These properties contribute to our goal of diversifying the REIT’s asset base and generating high risk-adjusted investment returns.
“Europe has been the epicentre of global institutional real estate investing, attracting the world’s greatest share of inter-regional net capital flows,” he added. “Maplewood in now uniquely positioned to build a strong property portfolio in our initial target market of the Netherlands, generating both income and growth for our unit holders.”
Maplewood’s four foothold properties are:
- The Atradius property is a 12-storey office building located in Amsterdam. It was constructed in 2008 and was custom designed by the tenant, Atradius Credit Insurance NV to serve as its new global head office. The building is still exclusively occupied by the original company and, in addition to its 145,980sq ft of offices it contains a conference centre, a full service cafeteria, an Internet café, an executive dining area, and underground parking
- The CSC property is a five-storey office building located in the Leiden Bio Science Park, one the leading life sciences clusters in The Netherlands and which ranks among the top five most successful science parks in Europe. Constructed in 2008, the CSC building serves as the Dutch head office of the US-based Healthcare Group of Computer Sciences Corporation. The floorspace exceeds 43,000sq ft and includes a cafeteria and on-site surface parking
- The Kawasaki property is a three-storey office building, integrated warehouse and training centre located in Hoofddorp, five kilometres from Amsterdam’s Schiphol International Airport. It was custom designed by the tenant, Kawasaki Motors Europe NV, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kawasaki Heavy Industries, to serve as Kawasaki’s new European head office. The site also serves as the training centre for all of Kawasaki’s regional offices across Europe.
- The Sole property is a 2012-built four-storey office building located in Amsterdam and which serves as Sole Technology’s European head office. The building has 24,402sq ft of office space and includes a ground floor showroom, cafeteria and on-site covered parking area. It was also built with a state-of-the-art heating and cooling system.
Maplewood International — formerly known as Holland Global Capital Corporation — is an open-ended REIT established in 2013 to invest in high-quality income producing commercial real estate outside of Canada with its initial focus on the investment grade countries of Europe.
Photo by Brent Simpson (cc)