Three German Versorgungswerke have acquired the €218m real estate project “Stadthöfe” in Hamburg.

The doctors’ fund Ärzteversorgung Niedersachsen (€7bn), the Ärzteversorgung Sachsen-Anhalt (€1.4bn) and the Ärzteversorgung Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (€1bn) have jointly acquired the project development, which Quantum Immobilien is scheduled to finish by 2017.

The Ärzteversorgung Niedersachsen is administering the other two funds, but they all have individual investment portfolios in which the real estate exposure was between 10%, for the Ärzteversorgung Niedersachsen, and 7%, for the fund for doctors in the province of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, prior to the deal.

This is yet another club deal involving Versorgungswerke, with the Hofstatt deal in November or the Amprion deal in 2011 being the largest examples.

The Stadthöfe project will see retail spaces, residential areas, a boutique hotel, offices and restaurants being built on a 100,000sqm area.

German law firm Luther, which advised the Versorgungswerke on the deal, said it was a “major challenge” for the firm itself and the “most complex deal” for the pension funds to date.

They compared the planned building complex to the Viktualienmarkt area in Munich.

German Versorgungswerke, which are the first-pillar funds for certain professions such as doctors, notaries, lawyers and vets, have to find new investment opportunities in a difficult economic environment, as their contributions for the most part far exceed their pensions payouts.

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