The federal government and the European Commission have been conducting exclusive negotiations for several months on a real estate transaction worth nearly 1 billion euros, write L’Echo and De Tijd in their Thursday edition. According to a source familiar with the matter, the SFPI, the federal government’s investment vehicle, wants to buy 23 old buildings in Brussels.
The European Commission wants to sell most of the buildings in its possession (with the exception of the Berlaymont building, which houses its main headquarters) representing a total area of 350,000 m² of offices located in the Léopold district. The largest building in the portfolio is the gigantic office complex at rue de la Loi, 130.
As this is an agreement between a European institution and its host country, Belgium, the European Commission is not required to organize a call for tenders. The private sector should, however, play a role in the project. Initially, the SFPI itself will buy the buildings of the Commission.
Then, it intends to allocate the portfolio in installments to renovate and redeploy it in collaboration with real estate developers. This would allow him to recover part of the purchase price.