Belgium changes course as destination for large assets

Belgium is traditionally not the most likely destination for large real estate assets, but the development of the Neo mixed-used project is creating new opportunities, noted Paul Delessene, director of EXCS.

In December last year, the authorities in Brussels shortlisted three candidate groups following the initial stage in the tender process for the 300,000 m2 mixed-use Neo development project. The candidate combines are UK REIT Hammerson, Soficom Development and Codic; French listed retail specialist Klepierre, AG Real Estate and Wereldhave Belgium; and European listed property giant Unibail-Rodamco, CFE and Besix.

‘Neo is the largest retail development in the Benelux with 70,000 m2 GLA,’ Delessene said. ‘A huge part is also residential: we plan to build 750,000 new residential units. There will also be a new conference centre with 2,500 seats in one room and total capacity for 5,000. It has always been difficult to attract big institutional investors due to the size of the assets and we were hoping to attract the right kind of parties with Neo. And we did: there were seven groups of large Ivy League institutional investors who were interested in taking part.’

Delessene made the comments at the PropertyEU Benelux Investment Briefing at Realty in Brussels at end-May.

The three groups that have been selected are now in the process of detailing their proposals to the city and regional authorities. The tender for the first phase of the project covers the shopping centre, leisure facilities, housing, offices and car parks. Construction is slated to begin in 2014.

The July-August edition of PropertyEU features a report from the investment briefing on the Belgian market held in May 2013 as part of a focus on the Benelux. This is complimented by an analysis of the biggest transactions in the first half the year. See the Benelux dossier for the complete roundup.