Union Investment Real Estate has agreed to buy the Rhine Park shopping centre in the German city of Neuss, near Düsseldorf from Swiss developer Unimo. Although the transaction price was not disclosed, the deal is said to be a three-digit figure.

Hamburg-based Union is buying 95% of the shares of the property company owning the shopping mall. The property is earmarked for its open-ended real estate fund Unimmo: Europa.

The Rheinpark Center offers around 37,300 m2 of retail space across 140 shops and 1,623 parking spaces. Construction work carried out by SF-Bau to expand the scheme will continue until April 2011. Major tenants include Saturn, C&A and H&M with most leases running for 10 years. ECE is the centre's asset manager.

'Neuss has a high level of purchasing power and is perfectly integrated into the national transport network,' said Frank Billand, a member of the management board of Union Investment Real Estate. 'The centre will turn into one of the major trading destinations in the Düsseldorf region.'