Ivanhoe Cambridge, the real estate arm of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDP), has just acquired a shopping centre in Düsseldorf — its fourth investment in Germany in a year.

Ivanhoe Cambridge’s CAN$249.3 million investment will give it a 92.5% interest in the project, construction of which has just got under way. The remainder is held by Management für Immobilien AG, which is also Ivanhoe Cambridge’s partner in three other shopping centres, in Zwickau, Leipzig and Berlin.

In Düsseldorf, the partners are building more than a shopping centre: the facility is part of a full-fledged inner-city development project including about 100 apartments, a park and a community centre. Slated to open in the fall of 2008, “Düsseldorf Arcaden” will comprise about 100 businesses, service companies, cafés and restaurants.

The Düsseldorf investment is Ivanhoe Cambridge’s second major acquisition this fall. In October, it announced that it had acquired a shopping centre in Madrid and increased its interest in two other centres, Vaughan Mills in Ontario and the St. Enoch Centre in Glasgow, Scotland. All told, its international shopping spree has cost it US$988 million.

Ivanhoe Cambridge’s portfolio now includes close to 70 shopping centres around the world. The company is present in Europe, Brazil, Japan and Mexico, and is trying its luck in China as part the C2 Group, a newly formed partnership with the Chinese group Chia Tai.