France, Belgium and Luxembourg-focused real estate developer-investor Eaglestone Group has acquired an office building in Brussels from HIH Invest Real Estate in an asset deal.
Financial details were not disclosed.
The property at Rue Royale 138 in Brussels was purchased by HIH Invest in 2011 on behalf of a closed-end real estate fund. Known as The Crown Center, it is located in the Pentagon District in the inner city.
Out of the V-shaped eight-storey building's 9,000 m2, roughly 8,500 m2 are taken up by offices while over 500 m2 are used as archive area. The building, originally constructed in 1968, was thoroughly refurbished in 2001 and 2002.
Its sole tenant is the federal Belgian agency, Régie des Bâtiments. Following the end of the current tenancy, Eaglestone is planning to modernise and restructure the office scheme with a focus on sustainability. In future, the building will combine the use types office and residential.
Matthias Brodesser, head of transaction management international at HIH Invest, said: 'The surroundings of the Crown Center have developed dynamically over the past years. We are glad to have found a buyer in Eaglestone Group who is renowned for sustainable high-end property developments.'
The property occupies a downtown site embedded in a mixed-use neighbourhood of offices, restaurants, cafés, retail and leisure venues. 'Restructuring the building will give the buyer a chance to reposition it while taking the environmental guidelines of the City of Brussels into account at the same time,' Brodesser added.
'Due to environmental concerns, buildings may only be demolished in exceptional cases anymore, the modernisation of standing properties under sustainability aspects being encouraged instead,' said Lea Messerschmidt, asset manager international at HIH Real Estate.
HIH Invest was advised by JLL and Deloitte.
