German lender pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank and Unicredit's HypoVereinsbank unit have agreed with Bürozentrum Parkstadt München Schwabing to provide a EUR 224 mln loan for the refinancing of the HighLight Towers in Munich. Deutsche Pfandbriefbank provided the bulk of the loan.

HighLight Towers - one of the few high-rise buildings in Munich - is located near the Mittlerer-Ring-Road and the A9-Motorway and offers roughly 82,600 m2 of office space and 750 parking spaces. It consists of two towers of glas and steel reaching 126 and 113 meters of height respectively. Designed by architects Chicagoan, they were completed in 2004 and are 95%-rented to well-known tenants including Fujitsu Techology Solutions, Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, die Strabag and the Innside Hotel.

'In light of the market environment, which remains difficult, the funding of this highly attractive office building was a particular challenge,' said Maria-Teresa Dreo, head of Real Estate Germany at HypoVereinsbank. 'The focus for us was on a financing structure which was tailor-made for our customer. The financing of HighLight Towers is completely within the framework of our business strategy in which we concentrate on high-quality, first-class projects with top customers.'

Bernhard Scholz, a member of the management board at Deutsche Pfandbriefbank, said the deal 'clearly shows the lender's new strategy with regard to real estate finance'. 'We are concentrating on pfandbrief-eligible core markets in Europe, with particular focus on Germany. Moreover, pbb is once again available for its customers as financier of large-volume transactions which we can provide together with partners or syndicate as necessary,' he said.