Zurich Insurance Group has acquired an Amsterdam retail complex, leased to Canadian department store group Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), for €200 mln.
The deal involves the transfer of the buildings' holding company, according to Chamber of Commerce records. It emerged earlier that the investment volume for the sale would be around €200 mln. The vendor was Dutch developer Ivy Group.
The three adjacent properties at Rokin 21 and 49, and De Vleeshal (pictured) comprise a total leasable area of 16,000 m2 and will be used to present 'one Hudson's Bay experience', HBC said back in June 2016 when it announced it was leasing the space.
The transaction does not include a location in the nearby Kalvertoren that will operate under the Saks Off 5th brand, which takes its name from the famous HBC-owned store on 5th Avenue in New York. De Kalvertoren is owned by the Amsterdam-based Kroonenberg Group.
HBC entered Europe in June 2015 with the takeover of Galeria Kaufhof in Germany and Galeria Inno, Belgium's only department store group. HBC then turned its attention to the Netherlands where a domestic department store chain, V&D, went into liquidation in early 2016. The four Amsterdam outlets form the spearhead of a major push by HBC that will see it open 20 stores across the Dutch market in a two-year period.
New metro
Ivy Group created the retail location on the Rokin by converting office space that had previously been occupied by Fortis Bank. The remodelled scheme consists of six upper floors and a basement that affords direct access to the Rokin station for the North-South metro line that is scheduled to open in July 2018.
HBC moved into the buildings in November 2016 and is completing refitting work. The scheme was originally earmarked for Marks & Spencer, but the UK retailer announced last year that it is closing down most of its international stores and retreating to its domestic market. Haussmann, another department store group, also cancelled plans to set up shop in central Amsterdam, leaving the way clear for HBC to expand unchallenged.