Metzler North America Purchase's Seattle's Millennium Tower for German Partner

Metzler North America announced today the purchase of the retail and office portion of the 20-story Class A Millennium Tower in downtown Seattle.

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Contacts: Jim Neal

Metzler North America

206-224-3900 (PT)

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Bob Frause

The Frause Group

206-352-6402 (PT)

Metzler North America Purchases Seattles Millennium Tower For German Partner

Deutsche Immobilien Fonds AG (DIFA) and Metzler North America to Focus on West Coast Acquisitions

Seattle, Wash (PRWEB) June 3, 2003 -- Metzler North America announced today the purchase of the retail and office portion of the 20-story Class A Millennium Tower in downtown Seattle on behalf of Deutsche Immobilien Fonds AG (DIFA), Hamburg, Germany. Metzler is the exclusive advisor to DIFA for the western U.S. and this purchase marks the first of their cooperative acquisition and management partnership.

The Millennium Tower acquisition is the ideal investment for DIFA," said Metzler North America CEO Jim Neal. Millennium Towers design, property sophistication and tenant credit profile embodies our idea of what a 'core property investment should be, and we are pleased to have been able to make this deal." The asset will become part of DIFAs open-ended real estate fund DIFA-GRUND.

The American real estate markets offer good basic conditions for a long-term investment due to their comparably high returns, their liquidity and the favorable economic perspective", Member of the Board, Dr. Reinhard Kutscher noted as he explained the intended US expansion of DIFA. The year 2003 appears to be a good point of time for the investment, since the total returns from leasing and appreciation are expected to significantly improve in the U.S. during 2004," he said.

According to Neal, Metzler-driven DIFA investments in the West will initially be made in California and Washington as well as the Canadian province of British Columbia. Our targeted investments will be properties valued at $50 million or more." Neal said.

Metzlers know-how is based on more than 25 years of experience in the North American real estate market," says Dr. Kutscher. Our collaboration with Metzler provides a basis for the successful implementation of our investment goal on the west coast, which currently is under represented in open ended investment funds." Metzler not only seeks and advises DIFA on acquisitions, but will also provide the asset and property services required for each Metzler advised acquisition.

The Millennium Tower is a 20-story mixed use building in downtown Seattle, with a ground-floor retail level. Thirteen of the 20 stories are Class A offices spaces, housing six long-term tenants, including investment banker Goldman Sachs & Co., the law firm of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, and Voyager Capital, LLC. The top six floors are high-end condominiums, which were not part of the deal.

About Metzler North America

Seattle-based Metzler North America is a diversified real estate investment management firm. It was established more than 25 years ago to create and manage North American real estate portfolios for the institutional and private clients of Bankhaus Metzler, Frankfurt, Germany and compatible domestic co-investors. Metzler North America is an integral component of the 329-year old Metzler Group; a global enterprise with assets under management exceeding $55 billion. Metzler North America currently owns, develops and manages real estate in several select markets throughout the U.S.

About DIFA

Deutsche Immobilien Fonds AG (DIFA), Hamburg, Germany, is the real estate company of Union Investment Group and with an 18 percent market share, is the second largest offerer of open-ended real estate funds in Germany. DIFAs US real estate acquisitions are intended to support the firms DIFA-GRUND portfolio positioning as a significant foreign fund. It is intended that, at mid-term, DIFA-GRUND will hold a 25 percent share in non-European real estate. DIFA-GRUND has been invested in the US since 1988 with assets of a volume of 230 M Euro located in Atlanta and Washington D.C.