There is a persistent misunderstanding about the future usefulness and necessity of off-street car parks. Many think we will be able to do without them in a number of years. They see a self-driven, automatic vehicle picking us up and dropping us off at our destination and then continuing on its journey.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Even self-driving privately owned vehicles pose a challenge for road capacity and may still cause congestion in our cities when not parked in the direct vicinity of the owner’s destination as these vehicles then have to drive back out of the city and drive back in later on to pick up its owner doubling the traffic flow in a city. And the need for a private car, and independent mobility, will not decrease significantly. Certainly not for those out-of-town dwellers, who want, or need, to visit a city centre every now and again. Not everyone will wish to wait for a self-propelled Uber, preferring to leave when it suits him or her, or the family. Covid-19 also shows that the need for our own ‘personal mobility space’ is not necessarily a thing of the past and will continue to have a role in the future.

View from the street
But there is something else going on. Something that will determine the future of parking to a much greater extent. And that is reducing the ‘functional view of the street’ in order to improve the quality of the public space. Increasingly cities are doing this. On the one hand by increasing the costs of on-street parking and on the other hand by reducing the number of parking spaces available. As a result, vehicle users will find their only choice is off-street car parks. Look not just at Amsterdam, but also Oslo.

As a result, the use of parking garages will become optimised simply because spaces are increasingly scarce. Even if the number of vehicles in city centres decline, measures taken by local authorities to reduce on-street parking will make car parks essential in order to guarantee the accessibility of inner cities for everyone.

Smart Cities
City authorities are increasingly understanding that car parks play an important role in inner-city infrastructure and so ‘smart parking’ is becoming more commonplace. This means that a potential user is informed ‘real time’ about the nearest available parking space, the cost and alternatives. In addition to a better customer experience, this prevents traffic searching for spaces, which forms a significant part of total inner-city traffic movements. Smart parking reduces CO2 and particulate matter emissions.

Smart parking can also be used to achieve greater flexibility in parking tariffs depending on whether there is more or less demand for parking, something that is already being applied on a smaller scale by parking operators. All these applications are based on the integration of parking into the infrastructure of a city, made possible by new technologies such as the Internet of Things in combination with 5G. Primevest is responding to this by means of its ‘Smart City’ product which integrates 5G techniques into lamp posts, thus creating a dense network of antennas which deliver data to the user even faster.

Mobility hubs
The traditional role of garages as a ‘warehouse’ for cars will change in the future, creating greater dynamism. Car parks will increasingly become ‘mobility’ hubs. Adding value will be central to this, whereby the customer will be offered additional services that can range from charging an electric car to online ‘pick-up’ services.

But that’s not all. Where there is room for other functions besides parking, we will see that car parks are also being used as ‘last mile’ delivery centres, where storage space is integrated and air-conditioned zones can be integrated, for example, for the catering industry. The preparation and distribution of delivery meals from customised spaces in parking garages close to the customer is something that is already happening. The last mile can then be bridged by less polluting electric-powered vehicles. Even rooftop spaces are now being used by parking operators as temporary event locations.

In summary
• Car parks will have to cope with rising demand for vehicle spaces due to the growing pressure on public space;
• Car parks will increasingly be integrated into urban infrastructure;
• Car parks will transform into smart mobility hubs.

At Primevest Capital Partners we believe in this future for car parks and see this asset class as an important addition to the portfolios of real estate and infrastructure investors. For 15 years we have invested in this asset, on the back of strong fundamentals which essentially have remained unchanged: scarcity of product, which is not easy to substitute and provides stable and long-term income streams. The future role of car parks in enabling smart mobility in our city centres is one fundamental that was not included as an investment-criteria when we launched our first fund 20 years ago, it is now.

Yet with industry insiders calculating that around half a billion of standalone, investment-grade assets were traded in the sector in 2019, nearly twice the figure for 2018, it is apparent that investor demand is on the rise. Furthermore, the latest state-driven sustainability initiatives – plus the rising value of prime, down-town land in Europe’s leading cities – may actually be boosting the relevance of parking facilities, according to Primevest Capital Partners, one of Europe’s leading car park investors.

BY ISOBEL LEE

Read full article: Article PropertyEU

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Utrecht / Berlin, March 18, 2020 at 6 p.m.

Situated on the edge of the Irish capital’s main retail area, the newly-acquired location is surrounded by a variety of offices, hotels and theatres. Thanks to these different anchors, the car park benefits from a wide range of customers throughout the day. The above-ground multi-storey building offers 213 parking spaces and is operated by Q-Park.

Floris Haentjens, Acquisition Manager Parking: “This kind of car park is exactly what we are looking for, and we are open to making new investments throughout most of Europe. This is our 3rd acquisition in Dublin – and already the 48th car park in our port-folio. Its acquisition further strengthens our high quality, sustainable portfolio of car park investments across Europe, bringing our investment volume in the car parks segment to a total of over €900 million”.

Bas Magielse, Fund Manager, adds: “Dublin is an attractive city to invest in. The Christchurch car park has a very favourable location and benefits from a tenant with a good covenant. As an asset, it is expected to provide our investors in this segment a highly stable and relatively attractive cash return.”

For further information, feel free to contact:
Lisette van der Ham
Head of Marketing & Corporate Communications
Lisette.vanderham@primevestcp.com
www.primevestcp.com

Buchanan Street, UK’s 2nd busiest retail street, after Oxford Street in London, is only yards away.The multi-storey car park of 220 parking spaces is operated by NCP, the largest car park operator in the UK which was recently taken over by a Japanese consortium of Development Bank of Japan and Park24. Bart Pierik, Managing Partner Primvest Capital Partners comments: “This is the first acquisition for our European Real Estate Parking Fund IV and the 47th car park in our portfolio. This car park will further strengthen our high-quality and sustainable portfolio of car park investments across Europe”.

Bas Magielse, Fund Manager Parking Primevest Capital Partners adds: “Mitchell Street is very well located and an asset which is expected to provide a very stable and relatively attractive cash return for our investors.”

The fourth institutional Parking Fund is structured as a German Immobilien-Spezialfonds serviced by HANSAINVEST Hanseatische Investment-GmbH (KVG) and will invest in a portfolio of car parks throughout Europe.

Primevest Capital Partners is the leading specialist for car park investments in Europe, and has been launching funds in this segment for over ten years. Including BEREPF IV, the investment manager currently manages a total of six funds with 47 car park properties. Assets under management in the car park segment represent a value of around EUR 900 million. The properties are located at very strong locations in several European countries.

On completion, Primevest CP has also refinanced the car park portfolio. The car parks in Germany, the Netherlands and France have been refinanced through a financing facility provided by BerlinHyp AG and Deutsche Postbank AG as Lenders, whilst the car parks in the United Kingdom and Spain have been refinanced through a financing facility provided by Deutsche Postbank AG.

Following completion, Primevest CP has successfully expanded the portfolio and divested its BEREPF I portfolio. The portfolio is now invested in 21 car parks in total, located in major cities in seven European countries. The portfolio is now fully invested with an investment volume of almost EUR 400 million. The seller, BEREPF I, was the first investment fund exclusively dedicated to investments in car park real estate car park that Bouwfonds IM launched in 2005 and reached fund maturity. After a careful and strict compliance process, in order to manage potential conflicts of interest and to ensure a transparent, competitive and fair sale, the properties of BEREPF l have been sold to Primevest CP.

In this multi-jurisdiction transaction both seller and buyer obtained support from renowned advisors. The seller was amongst others supported by Cushman & Wakefield (broker), CMS (multi-jurisdiction legal and tax support), Bureau Veritas Asset Management (technical support). The buyer was supported amongst others by Unifore DMC Real Estate Finance (financing arranger), Deloitte (tax), DLA (legal transaction support) , whilst Latham & Watkins (Germany , United Kingdom & Spain), and NautaDutilh (Netherlands and Luxembourg) were responsible for legal advice on the financing documentation and legal restructuring. Technical advice came from Apleona/GVA. Dentons has advised the banks on the finance documentation in all jurisdictions.

IntReal International Real Estate Kapitalverwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, Hamburg, Germany, is acting as the service asset management company for the fund, performing administration of the open ended special AIF.