Danish banking group Nykredit has decided to enter into final negotiations with AP Pension for the contract to construct its new headquarters in Copenhagen, according to the commercial mutual pensions provider — which says its will also build a new headquarters for itself as part of the plan.

The proposed new 28,000sqm Nykredit headquarters will be situated in Copenhagen’s Nordhavn (North Harbour) district and will accommodate 1,650 employees who are currently spread out over three buildings located on the Danish capital’s waterfront.

Nykredit’s deputy director Martin von Horsten said: “AP Pension has presented an exciting solution for Nykredit’s upcoming head office which, after an overall assessment, best addresses the parameters that are important to Nykredit in relation to a future headquarters.”

AP Pension said it would also build itself a new head office in an extension of the planned structure at Holm 8 in Sundkrogsgade in Svanemøllehavnen in Copenhagen.

Peter Olssen, chief executive of the pension fund’s real estate arm, AP Real Estate, told IPE the contract was worth a lot, without being more specific.

“Projects like these with triple-A tenants on long leases and in prime locations have always traded very high, and just now the market for this kind of property is particularly hot,” he said.

He added that the headquarters for both companies are due to be completed at the same time, with construction scheduled to begin in early 2020 and the move expected to happen in the second half of 2022.

AP Pension said that the planned new building, which is designed by PLH Architects, will house its own approximately 500 employees, adding that as a business it had outgrown its current offices.