• Pan-European urban logistics platform Crossbay has acquired three fully-leased assets in the Netherlands
• Crossbay is also developing a last-mile distribution centre in Gilze en Rijen, and signed an occupier on a long-lease at an asset in Alphen aan den Rijn
• The urban logistics real estate platform has a growing presence in the Benelux region, representing 210,000 m. of warehousing and commercial space across 25 sites

Crossbay, the pan-European urban logistics platform incubated by real estate investment manager MARK, has acquired three distribution centres in the Netherlands, as well as a development site.

The three assets, situated in prime locations in Eindhoven, Almere, and Barendrecht, represent over 35,000 sq m of high quality warehousing space. All three acquisitions were purchased through off-market transactions.

Details of the acquisitions are as follows:

• The Eindhoven property is located at Mispelhoefstraat 21 in GDC North, an industrial area northwest of the city. The acquisition was secured through a sale-and-leaseback deal with the new occupiers HMG Bedtextiel, the Benelux region’s largest producer of bedding, and home and garden online retailer Enjoy Company.
• The second asset, located at Rondebeltewg 42 in Almere, was, at the time of purchase, already fully-let to Eurotown, a well-known distributor of European products in the Chinese market.
• The third is in Barendrecht, a town near Rotterdam, and was acquired from an owner-user on a long-term lease.

Crossbay is also working with Roozen van Hoppe, a local property development and construction company, to develop a distribution centre in Gilze en Rijen, a municipality in the southern Netherlands. Comprising over 8,00 sq m of warehouse and office space, the property has been pre-let to Lily Maas, a logistics and customs declaration company.

The combined acquisitions demonstrates Crossbay’s ability to source attractively priced opportunities in competitive markets and deploy capital at pace.

The urban logistics real estate platform has a growing presence in the Benelux region, representing 210,000 sq. m. of warehousing and commercial space across 25 sites in 18 locations.

Crossbay was advised by Deloitte (taxation), Taylor Wessing (legal) and CBRE (technical) on all the above deals.

The acquisitions follow Crossbay recently signing one of the biggest Asian food importers in Europe as an occupier for a mixed warehousing and commercial asset in Alphen aan den Rijn, in the western region of the Netherlands. The company has signed a five-year lease on the property, which comprises over 9,000 sq m of logistics and office space.

Crossbay was advised by Cushman & Wakefield together with Hopman & Schreuder.

Marco Riva, head of Crossbay and logistics at MARK, comments: “This triple acquisition in the Netherlands is part of our expansion strategy, building our presence in established markets outside of our initial portfolio in southern Europe, as well as expanding into new geographies such as Poland.

“Our genuine pan-European presence, with on-the-ground teams in all of Europe’s core real estate markets, means we can continue to source attractively priced opportunities despite the urban logistics sector growing increasingly competitive.

“The Netherlands is the most advanced ecommerce economy in the Benelux region and also a key target market for our  residential investment platform Doma, which is pursuing a similar strategy to Crossbay by aggregating granular, hard-to-access assets to create a institutional-grade portfolio of scale, then driving a premium through strong branding and proactive asset management.”

Crossbay, which currently has Europe’s largest pure play urban logistics portfolio, also recently purchased a multi-storey logistics asset close to Paris in France, and entered the Polish logistics market after acquiring two sites in Warsaw and Lodz from Europe’s leading industrial developer Panattoni.

Launched in May 2020 by leading private equity real estate investment manager MARK, Crossbay was designed to enable institutional investors such as pension funds and insurers to grow their exposure to the fast-growing last mile logistics sector.

Crossbay primarily targets single-user distribution centres in locations no more than a 90-minute journey to the centre of the nearest city.

The platform’s c.750,000 sq m portfolio hosts a high-profile tenant base, counting leading 3PLs such as FedEx and DHL, as well as major e-commerce brands like Amazon, as occupiers.

In December 2020, MARK announced a successful capital raise for Crossbay, securing €550m in equity commitments from a global range of investors. Investors included the Townsend Group, CBRE GI, Credit Suisse, Nuveen and QInvest LLC.

The fundraise was then followed by a €400m debt facility from investment bank Citi in January 2021 to help further fund Crossbay’s growth and European expansion.