Part 1 // B2B
REAL ESTATE
THE EURO− PEAN COM− MISSION IS REHOUSED The employees of the European Com− mission will take possession of their new offices in the Ariane and Laccolith buildings, in Luxembourg, at the end of this year. They will remain there for a few years, until their new permanent building, known as Jean Monnet 2, is ready in 2019.
“The Laccolith building was built in 2002 and was the first new generation office building in Luxembourg” Angélique Sabron (JLL)
Text: Fabrice Barbian
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he European Commission began looking for new offices last year, in order to re-house the 1,700 employees who work in the Jean Monnet building in the Kirchberg district of the capital of Luxembourg. The move was made necessary by the growing obsolescence of their current home, a building that was constructed in the 1970s. The requirements of the Commission were not easy to meet. It initially published a requirement for 58,000 m2 of office space in Luxembourg-city, in premises that would also have had to house a conference centre of at least six rooms that could host between 60 and 300 people. Given that at the time, there was no building in Luxembourg that met all of these criteria, the Commission decided to look into an alternative, involving renting several smaller buildings close to one another, near the railway station, preferably in Kirchberg or La Cloche d’Or, and well served by public transport. This was a major challenge for the local commercial real-estate agents, at a time when the Luxembourgish market is particularly buoyant. But the challenge was finally met in June this year, when the Commission rented two buildings previously occupied by PwC Luxembourg before it moved to its new building, Crystal Park, at Ban de Gasperich. “These are the Ariane and Laccolith buildings, which together have around 25,000 m2 of space. The Commission’s rental of these two buildings constitutes
the two biggest real estate deals of the year 2015 to date” says Angélique Sabron, the person in charge of the Office Agency department at JLL Luxembourg. JLL was the agent which brokered the deal for the Laccolith building, by responding to the invitation to tender in conjunction with the German fund (Deka Immobilien GmbH) which owns the building and for which JLL had a representation mandate. The deal for the Ariane building was signed directly by its owner with the Commission, the latter already being one of its tenants. The two buildings will be able to house around 1,200 employees, from the end of this year. “The Laccolith building was built in 2002 and was the first new generation office building in Luxembourg. Ikogest, the building’s developer and a leading player on the market at the time, was a pioneer, anticipating the need to cut the building’s energy consumption and its impact on the environment, while ensuring that the occupants were housed comfortably and conveniently and felt good in its building, says Angélique Sabron. The first tenants were Clearstream, Alliance Berstein, Arcelor, Solvay, Microsoft, Temenos, then PwC, all major players which were won over by the comfort and modularity of the building, combined with its ideal location for cross-border commuters from France and Belgium. Each of the floors comprises then three separate areas which can be combined together, with structural elements and networks designed to enable great flexibil-
ity in terms of fitting out (as partitioned office space, or open-plan, with reception and/or conference space). The building has a surface area of 13,276 m2 and has 292 parking spaces. Under its current owner, it has also secured a BREEAM certification.”
While waiting for Jean Monnet 2 The Commission will not occupy the whole of Laccolith, but a large proportion of it, namely 11,291 m2. It will share the premises with a second and sole tenant, the NCI business centre. Internal alterations will be carried out in order to adapt the premises to the modes of internal operation of the Commission, but the aim is to limit the costs involved. Cost control is a priority. “Although the Commission was prepared to rent several sites, it was adamant not to split its operations between too many addresses in order to limit the associated expenses, in particular those linked to security” says Sabron. In any event, the rental of the two buildings beginning at the end of this year will only be a temporary arrangement. The leases signed by the Commission are timed to expire upon completion of the future Jean Monnet 2 building, which will host the personnel of the Commission in the long term. Work will begin in 2016. An initial phase comprising 76,000 m² will be delivered come 2019, and the second phase of 44,000 m² is scheduled for 2023..
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