Tishman Speyer announced monday that it has purchased, from Blackstone, one of the largest office buildings in Paris, known as Lumière. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Located in the 12th arrondissement of Paris the building offers 125,000 m² (1,345,000 sq ft) leasable area and includes 9,000 m² (97,000 sq ft) of retail and 21,000 m² (226,000 sq ft) of warehousing. The building is multi-let to a diverse roster of high quality tenants including SNCF, Crédit Foncier, ING and Société Générale.
Lumière is Tishman Speyers fourth acquisition in Paris since December, 2005 (Paris Bourse - 32,000 m²/346,500 sq ft, Eurosquare 1 - 15,500 m²/166,000 sq ft, 24-26 rue Villiot (Gare de Lyon) - 18,500 m²/200,000 sq ft) and follows the recent sale of CBX Tower to Dexia Crédit Local. The purchase represents the largest single building transaction in the Paris market this year, and follows Tishman Speyers acquisition in London last month of CityPoint, marking the largest single building purchase in that market too .
We are excited by this acquisition as it offers a secure tenancy but also the opportunity for substantial improvement and growth commented Eric Adler, Managing Director and Head of European Acquisitions for Tishman Speyer. Despite the volume of competitive capital we have been able to maintain a reasonable deal flow and feel positive about certain markets in Europe. In the last year we made 10 new acquisitions in Europe involving over 3.5 billion of assets.
The investment is being made through Tishman Speyer's European Strategic Office Fund, a long-term core fund established to acquire prime properties in major cities of Europe. This acquisition represents the seventh investment made by the fund, which controls assets exceeding 1.8 billion in value.
Blackstone was advised by Freshfields and Tishman Speyer by Wargny Katz, Clifford Chance and Baker McKenzie. In addition, Morgan Stanley structured equity and debt financing for Tishman Speyer and acted as its sole financial advisor for the acquisition.
Tishman Speyer is one of the leading owners, developers, and operators of first class real estate in the world. Since its founding in 1978, the company has acquired or developed a portfolio of over 76 million square feet (7 million square metres), valued at over 19 billion. Tishman Speyers reputation for globally recognised properties includes such well-known icons as New York Citys Chrysler Building and Rockefeller Center, Londons CityPoint and Tower Place, Frankfurts MesseTurm, and other prominent properties in major European cities.
Source: Tishman Speyer
