Avignon Capital has completed a new lease transaction at its Ampere building to the tech company GetYourGuide (GYG), a Berlin-based technology start-up. GYG has signed a lease to take the entire Ampere Campus subject to a 10-year lease reflecting an increase on previous rents achieved at the building.
Avignon acquired the historic Ampere building in Q3 2016 and the business plan on acquisition was to invest significant capital into improvements, lease out vacant space and create a highly desirable work and leisure destination.
This unique listed property built in 1926 represents the early 20th century German industrial architecture and is a former electricity transformer station (“Umspannwerk”). In 2010 the building was converted to offices, retaining the character of the building.
The 11,842 sqm Ampere building is located in Prenzlauer Berg, an area popular with new, creative companies. Currently spread across Berlin in several offices, Ampere offered GYC the opportunity to consolidate its team under one roof to create a global headquarters, which it will move into by the end of H1 2019. It will create a modern campus, retaining the historic character of the building for its 400 employees and despite being a single tenant, GYG has thought of ways to keep the front of the building public with open spaces and a café.
Proposed fit-out by GetYourGuide
The decision to let the campus in its entirety to GYG will reduce risk of long term vacancy and the letting significantly improves the income profile of the building, crystallising a 54% uplift against previous rent.
The Ampere building is the sister building to the Umspannwerk Kreuzberg, which Avignon acquired in Q1 2015. Avignon secured technology giant Google as a new tenant at the building where it established their first Google Campus in Berlin.
Drees & Sommer and Berwin Leighton Paisner acted for Avignon Capital and CBRE acted for GYG.
Eric Mounier, CEO of Avignon Capital said: “Berlin continues to be a European leader for tech focussed business, so we are delighted that Avignon has been able to attract a dynamic tech company like GYG to the building.
The letting to GYG fitted with Avignon’s overarching asset management vision to create a vibrant campus which is home to tech orientated tenants who embody the characteristics of the building as part of their fit out and brand.
Having GYG as a tenant will help to increase the profile of the Ampere building as they are an ambitious and aspirational company on track to cross the milestone of 20 million ticket sales this year.
Our goal is always to sustain and ultimately increase income and capital growth to investors, so this new letting to GYG has had a positive impact on rents and valuation and will maximize returns to investors”
Eva Glänzer, VP of People at GetYourGuide said: “We’re excited to take this next step for GetYourGuide and thrilled to be moving the entire team from multiple offices into one single building.
The iconic Ampere building fitted our search criteria and offered us outstanding creative office space that would inspire our team and reflect our brand ethos – and we knew immediately that it was the right space for us. We are excited to start the fit-out and create an amazing collaborative environment for our team to work in. Our investment into the building cements our long-term growth plans for the company.”