White Star Real Estate and its partner, an investment fund of a major US university have completed the acquisition of Liberty Technology Park Cluj from Fribourg Development, the real estate division of Fribourg Capital. Liberty Technology Park comprises 18,000 sqm of former industrial buildings. The five Class A office buildings are BREEAM certified. Located north of the city, the park has a number of IT&C and R&D tenants, such as Siemens, IBM, Majorel and Altran.
White Star Real Estate and its partner, an investment fund of a major US university, have developed a joint venture for the acquisition of Liberty Technology Park and the further development of this project. White Star Real Estate will manage both the existing property and the development of the following phases.
White Star Real Estate was assisted by Albota Law, Dentons, Colliers International Romania and EY during the acquisition. Fribourg Development was advised by Colliers and Reff & Associates.
“We are delighted with the opportunity offered by Liberty Technology Park to benefit from Romania’s favourable economic and demographic trends and to continue to build one of the most important technology parks in Central and Eastern Europe. According to the information we have, this is the first time an investment fund of an American university invests directly in the Romanian real estate market. This demonstrates our confidence in the development of the city as a whole and in the innovative potential of the residents of Liberty Technology Park,” Brian Patterson, Founder of White Star Real Estate said.
“To see an investor backed up by the endowment fund of an educational institution in acquiring a flourishing office project like Liberty Technology Park is far from the typical Romanian investment scenario. Many real estate players expect big transactions to happen on the Romanian market, but, in this case, the value this investment deal holds goes beyond cash and liquidity. Given the nature of the equity partner and the usual risk profile such investor takes into consideration, it will go on having a significant impact on the investment market. We see this as a true disruption in the Romanian real estate, strong enough to reinforce hope about the many opportunities that the future holds for both Cluj-Napoca and the whole country”, commented Anca Merdescu, Senior Associate Investment & Debt Advisory at Colliers International Romania.
