Doughty Hanson acquired the derelict site in 2001 at a court-administered liquidation auction before bringing its minority partner BPD Property Development Srl of Treviso into the transaction and creating its Italian operating platform, Europa Risorse Srl, to manage the redevelopment project. The project was initiated in co-operation with L'Oréal as part of Doughty Hanson's corporate solutions program.
The building is located on Via Primaticcio in Milan. Construction began in 2001 and was completed in mid-2003. Europa Risorse managed the project and completed the project ahead of schedule. Doughty Hanson & Co Real Estate was advised on the sale by Cushman & Wakefield Healey & Baker. WestInvest was advised by DLA Group.
The transaction is Doughty Hanson Real Estate Fund's second exit in Italy in the last three months. In September, in one of the largest sales in Europe this year, the German open fund Deutsche Gesellschaft fr Immobilienfonds (DEGI) paid Doughty Hanson $234 million (200 million Euro) for Bodio Center, a 700,000-sf office development in the central Milan district of Bovisa.
In October, Doughty Hanson jumped into the high-end Italian residential condo market with a project in Milan valued in excess of $232 million (Euro 200 million). The Orti Antichi (Ancient Gardens) development will involve the reconstruction of 10 buildings into a single estate in the Piazzetta Mondadori neighborhood, considered one of the city's more prestigious residential areas. Many of the buildings were constructed as residences around the turn of the century and converted to offices in the 1970s. The buildings cover almost the entire city block bounded by via Bianca di Savoia, via San Martino, via Santa Lucia and viale Beatrice d'Este.
The Doughty Hanson & Co. fund acquired the buildings from UniCredito Italiano, which vacated the area earlier this year in connection with their relocation to Bodio Center. As with Bodio Center, Orti Antichi will be managed locally by Europa Risorse. The first units will be ready for occupancy in the first half of 2004. In all, more than 100 condominium units will be delivered over the next two to three years, with units ranging in size from 591 sf to 2,367 sf.
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