Patrizia buys Brussels office tower for Korean consortium

Patrizia Immobilien is buying a Brussels office tower for a group of Korean investors.

The investment manager said it agreed to buy the Astro Tower through its subsidiary Patrizia France from a Spanish seller.

Konrad Finkenzeller, head of institutional international clients, said institutional investors from Asia were increasingly joining their European peers. 

Patrizia has not revealed how much it will pay for the 33-storey tower.

Spanish property company Luresa, a subsidiary of Union Resinera Espanola, paid around €100m for the tower in early 2008.

The 107-metre asset’s previous owners were SNS Property Finance, now Bouwfonds, and developer Hugenholtz.

Fortis Real Estate, now AG Real Estate, has also owned the building in the past.

Bruno Cohen, managing director at Patrizia France, said the office property market in Brussels was “extremely attractive to institutional capital”. 

The 36,000sqm tower has been refurbished and will become the regional headquarters of the employment agency in October, with the body having signed a 26-year lease.