Clifford Chance has advised international real estate investor and manager Hines on the acquisition of an office complex in Cologne from Generali Deutschland. Hines has purchased two vacant office buildings in Cologne with around 16,000 m² of space to open the portfolio for its European value-add fund HEVF 3. This is the first investment by the third fund of Hines’ value-add flagship programme on the German market.

As part of a comprehensive restructuring plan, the two buildings are to be converted into modern and sustainable offices, with large parts of the existing buildings influenced by the architect Egon Eiermann being retained.

The Clifford Chance team comprised partners Gerold Jaeger (Real Estate, Dusseldorf) and Olaf Mertgen (Tax, Frankfurt), senior associates Philip Heinzel and David Rahmel (both Dusseldorf) and legal support assistant Sabrina Becker (all Real Estate, Frankfurt).