Sweden's Skanska leads our ranking of top office developers in Europe, both in terms of completed projects in the last three years and developments planned between now and 2020.
Sweden’s Skanska strengthens stronghold in CEE
Swedish construction group Skanska tops our poll of top office developers with almost 410,000 m2 of new floor space in the last three years. Around 70% of the total is in the central European markets of Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Romania, with the Nordic region accounting for the remainder.
Poland has been particularly fertile territory for Skanska, which sold the first office building at Generation Park in Warsaw to German investor Hansainvest Real Assets for €83 mln in November. The entire Generation Park site will comprise three buildings over 84,000 m2, including a 34-storey tower.
Skanska also completed the sale of its first Romanian development, the three-building Green Court complex in Bucharest, to London AIM-listed company Globalworth last year. Looking ahead, the company has 1.37 million m2 of developments in the pipeline, with Poland once more to the fore.
French stalwart BNP PRE moves into Germany and Portugal
Just edged into second place in our ranking is BNP Paribas Real Estate, which built 401,600 m2 of new office space in the three years to 2017. The Paris-based investment, development, services and advisory firm has developed flagship HQ buildings for Google in London and BNL Bank in Rome, as well as the new offices of L’Oreal Luxe in France.
It recently announced its first German scheme after acquiring a 2,460 m2 plot in Frankfurt where it will build the 37,900 m2 99 West Tower for a total investment of almost €200 mln. BNP PRE is also entering the Portuguese market with a €122 mln, 74,000 m2 mixed-used scheme in Lisbon.
Going forward, the company has 137,600 m2 of offices under construction across Europe and over half a million m2 of development in the pipeline.
Altarea Cogedim targets new schemes and redevelopments
France’s largest real estate developer Altarea Cogedim has completed 386,550 m2 of new offices in the past three years, including the Euromed Center in Marseille and a 14,500 m2 multiple-tenant building beside Austerlitz train station in Paris, which was sold during construction to Caisse des Dépots.
Several major projects are slated for development in the next few years, including the renovation of the Pascal Towers in Paris’ La Défense financial district, which is being jointly financed by Altarea Cogedim’s AltaFund and Goldman Sachs.
Later in 2018 perfume giant Christian Dior is moving into the flagship Kosmo building in Neuilly-sur-Seine, whichhas been designed by architects Laure Mériaud and Simon Rodriguez-Pages of Ateliers 2/3/4. Altogether the company has €3.1 bn of pipeline investment lined up, which covers nearly 836,000 m2 of office development.