Principal Real Estate Europe, acting as asset and transaction manager of the Principal European Office Fund, has acquired Henkel’s French headquarters building from a fund managed by Primonial REIM. The purchase price was not disclosed.
The nine-storey building comprises 8,110 sqm of lettable area, of which 7,600m² is let on a long-term lease to Henkel, the international chemical and consumer goods company, which was the building’s first occupier in 1994. In addition to the office space, there are 500m² of restaurant space on the ground floor and 193 car parking spaces.
Built in 1992, the building is located on Rue de Silly 161 in Boulogne-Billancourt, a suburb southwest of Paris that is well served by public transport with excellent links to the city via the metro and several bus routes. Planned improvements to the local metro that are due to come into service in 2025 are set to significantly reduce journey times to other parts of the city. For example, it will take only eight minutes to reach La Défense, the largest office "town" in mainland Europe and home to the headquarters of numerous banks and insurance companies.
Guillaume Masset, Head of Transactions and Asset Management in Europe, commented: “This is an office building with potential, let to a blue-chip tenant on a long-term lease and located in a promising suburb of Paris that is set to benefit from a large state-backed infrastructure investment project. It is exactly the sort of core asset we are targeting for the Principal European Office fund, providing stable income and potential capital value appreciation over the long-term”.
