Nuve Partners acquired the Jugla shopping centre in Riga
At the beginning of 2021, Retail Property Fund managed by Nuve Partners, acquired the Jugla shopping centre in Riga. For the first time in the fund’s history, private investors were included in the circle of investors in addition to Swedbank’s pension funds. Jugla Centre has a 4,500 m² of leasable area and its anchor tenant is Rimi. The centre also houses Lemon Gym and Pepco as well as several smaller tenants.
“The acquired centre is a valuable addition and fits perfectly into our portfolio of neighbourhood stores,” confirms Lauri Henno, partner and fund manager at Nuve Partners. According to him, the Jugla Centre meets several important criteria for successful commercial real estate: good visibility and accessibility, high visitor numbers, long-term leases and a building in excellent condition, all of which support the growth of traders’ business and thus increase investment return.
“The location by the city’s main highway invites not only the surrounding residents but also people passing by car to shop, and therefore we see very high visitor numbers in the Jugla Centre,” confirms Henno and says that due to the latter it is also a familiar shopping centre for many Estonians. “When leaving Riga and travelling towards Tallinn, an extremely easy access is provided to the Jugla Centre from the highway. A stop is often made there before a long drive,” confirms Henno.
In total, Retail Property Fund has six centres in its portfolio and Jugla is the fund’s second investment in Riga. Following the acquisition of Jugla, the value of Latvian real estate investments is approximately half of the fund’s portfolio.
“Successful transactions in Latvia confirm that we are on the right track with our trans-Baltic business strategy, and of course the fact that new private investors also see value in our growing portfolio, will undoubtedly increase confidence,” says Lauri Henno.
The law firm Walless advised Nuve Partners on the transaction and the real estate was brokered by Colliers.
About Retail Property Fund
Retail Property Fund is a Baltic-wide real estate fund that specialises in neighbourhood shopping centres close to home. The total volume of the fund’s investments is planned to be €100 million within a timeframe of 20 years. The anchor investors of the fund are Swedbank pension funds.
