Hines and Ipsen sign 9-year fixed lease in Paris office building (FR/US)

Hines has signed a nine-year fixed lease with the pharmaceutical group, Ipsen, for 19,190 m² of office space and 363 parking spaces in the Khapa building, a new Class A office tower being developed on the former Renault car-factory land in Boulogne-Billancourt, just outside of Paris. Ipsen, which will relocate its current Paris office, will occupy their new space by July 2008.

Located on a bend in the Seine River across from Seguin Island, the 29-story, 675,000-ft² building is being developed in tandem by the Hines European Development Fund (HEDF) and the French real estate firm Gecina, and was designed by architectural firms Foster & Partners and Ateliers 234.

"The transaction with Ipsen is a very strong indicator that the risk taken by Hines and Gecina in December 2005 to develop an architecturally ambitious project in Hines' master-planned development of the former Renault factory site has paid off," said Patrick Albrand, director, Hines France.

Construction of the project began in July 2006 and has scheduled delivery for the middle of 2009. Khapa is one of the first buildings constructed in the mixed-use redevelopment project and meets French HQE criteria (sustainable development certification schele) for its design and conceptual construction.

In 2005, Hines and Gecina announced the development of approximately 40,000 m² of speculative office space, including: L'Angle, a 11,000-m² office building in Boulogne designed by Jean-Paul Viguier; Building D2, a 20,000-m² office building in Boulogne designed by Foster & Partners; and Pyramidion, a 9,000-m² office building in La Defense (Courbevoie) designed by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners.

Source: Hines

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