Located in Mechelen, Malinas opened in October last year and is the most sustainable retail park in Belgium, designed to be CO2 neutral and to achieve an “Excellent” score on the BREEAM scale. In the Netherlands, Mitiska Reim currently has a portfolio of three retail parks. The company has also built a solid pipeline of convenience real estate investment opportunities, in joint ventures with local operating partners. As part of their wider ESG initiatives, they increased its number of BREEAM In-Use certifications to 45% in 2021 and are on track to increase it to 85% in 2022.
Bert Heyman, CFO at Mitiska Reim, comments: “Securing these green loans is an important milestone in our ESG program and a clear sign of the opportunity that our company now has to access green loan financing across our convenience real estate investments. At present, a quarter of our debt portfolio is in the form of green loans and our aim is to establish a broader green financing framework in which to increase the number of green loans across the 10 European markets in which we operate.”
Kim Creten, Director at KBC Real Estate, comments: “We are delighted to partner with Mitiska Reim and support them to incorporate sustainability features into their long-term bank financing. Mitiska Reim is a great example of a company that has a strong commitment to ESG and sustainability and can now successfully leverage this in the green loans market.”
The green loans distinguish themselves from conventional loans by including climate risk elements in the financing frameworks, with the availability of financing now clearly linked to factors such as minimum BREEAM scores, CRREM decarbonization pathways, restriction to build in high-flood risk areas and reporting of energy consumption data.
