1. Australia: Brookfield acquires Brisbane hotel
Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management acquired the Hotel X Brisbane Fortitude Valley in Australia for a price reported at about 90 million Australian dollars or $57.8 million in U.S. currency, as investor interest rises ahead of the city’s hosting of the 2032 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.
The seller was Pointcorp Development Group, which opened the 146-room hotel in 2021 after arranging for IHG Hotels & Resorts to operate the property within its Vignette Collection brand. IHG announced in May that it is bringing its Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants brand to Brisbane in 2028, as other developers seek to capitalize on festivals and sporting events that have already boosted daily rates and per-room revenue for hotels in the city.
2. UK: Amazon in talks to lease major distribution hub
Amazon is reported to be nearing a deal to lease a large distribution hub that would be developed in Kettering, England, as the e-commerce giant expands its United Kingdom logistics network.
Sources said Amazon was in talks with developer Tritax Big Box to occupy a planned 1 million-square-foot warehouse under build-to-suit arrangements. Amazon’s Kettering space requirement is among several active in the region, with the retailer also looking for considerable space in Bristol, England, after confirming plans for a £500 million fulfillment center in Northampton.
3. France: Real estate investment lags European recovery
European real estate markets have been showing signs of recovery in recent months, after two years of macroeconomic and geopolitical tensions. But France’s investment volumes are heading into 2025 still lagging behind those of neighboring countries, according to analysts.
Data firm ImmoStat reported €7.8 billion was deployed in the first three quarters of the year in French commercial real estate, and consulting firm Arthur Loyd forecasts a landing of €10 to €12 billion for full-year 2024. That’s a far cry from the €34 billion invested in 2019, and possibly even lower than the €11.5 billion committed just in the first half of 2022.
4. Germany: Deloitte signs year’s largest office lease in Berlin
Deloitte rented about 20,000 square meters of office space at a property in central Berlin, as the consulting firm consolidates its four existing locations in the German capital. Analysts said it is Berlin’s largest private-sector office lease of 2024 based on space leased.
Financial terms were not immediately disclosed for Deloitte’s lease at a nine-story Berlin office property built in 2011 and owned by investment firm Deka. The space will be renovated before Deloitte moves in sometime during 2026, increasing the consulting firm’s total Berlin office footprint from its current 15,000 square meters.
5. Canada: Hines might have Toronto’s newest towers for years to come
Global investment firm Hines could have Toronto’s newest office towers for several years down the road, based on financing and other factors constraining new development, according to panelists at a real estate forum in Canada’s largest city.
“There is essentially no new supply coming behind us,” said Avi Tesciuba, a longtime senior executive at Houston-based Hines. “We developed three new buildings during COVID, and there were others, but that is kind of the end of that wave.” Stefan Teague of Crown Realty Partners said Hines might have Toronto’s newest office buildings “for the next five years, at least, and probably longer.”
6. US: Judge blocks Kroger-Albertsons supermarket merger
A federal judge blocked the $24.6 billion merger of U.S. supermarket giants Kroger and Albertsons, rejecting their claim that retail giants Walmart and Amazon are their direct competitors and ruling that their store-divestiture plan doesn’t satisfy antitrust concerns. Albertsons called off the deal a day after the ruling.
The court decision derailed what would have been the largest supermarket merger in U.S. history, marking the latest chapter in a deal that was announced in October 2022 when Kroger, based in Cincinnati, said it planned to acquire Albertsons, which is headquartered in Boise, Idaho. The deal would have created a company with a combined total of about 5,000 stores.
This report was compiled from CoStar’s news publications in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France and Germany.