Real estate investment giant AEW has acquired the iconic former Scottish Stock Exchange building in Glasgow city centre from Aberdeen Standard Investments on behalf of the AEW Europe City Retail Fund for £33 million. 

The property, at 153-159 Buchanan Street & 6-11 Nelson Mandela Place, is the fund’s first acquisition in the UK.
 
The Category A listed landmark property comprises 57,190 sq ft in total and provides 24,920 sq ft of retail space and 22,704 sq ft of office accommodation.
 
The property is fully let to nine tenants. The ground and first two floors of the property are anchored by The North Face and Urban Outfitters.

The third and fourth floors are let to The Scottish Ministers while the fifth floor comprises three smaller office suites.

Three further restaurant/leisure units on the ground and lower ground floors fronting on to Nelson Mandela Place are occupied by Subway, Carlsberg UK, and Absurd Bird.
 
AEW director of investments Spencer Corkin said: “This is one of the best retail assets in Scotland, reflecting our highly selective acquisition strategy in the UK.

“Buchanan Street is second only to London’s West End in terms of footfall and retail spend, yet it provides a significant prime yield margin.

“The micro location’s fundamentals remain particularly attractive with almost zero availability and robust occupier demand driving strong rental growth in recent years.”
 
Europe City Retail Fund manager Christina Ofschonka said: “Through this acquisition we have added another high quality asset to the fund portfolio and we have a strong pipeline of further potential investments.

“Over the last 12 months we have expanded the breadth and depth of our investor base with new investors from Italy and the Netherlands, reflecting the strong appetite among institutions for this focused retail strategy.”
 
AEW was advised by Brodies and Cushman & Wakefield and the vendor, Aberdeen Standard Investments, by Shepherd + Wedderburn and CBRE.