Macquarie Global Property Advisors (MGPA), a private equity real estate fund management company, and Générale Continentale Investissements have agreed to acquire an office building in Paris from AXA REIM France.

The 11,023 square metre property is very well located within Montrouge, on the south edge of Paris, only 200 metres from the ring road and within easy walking distance for the RER, metro, tramway and bus stations leading to the city centre.  The building has recently been vacated and will be extensively refurbished over the next six months to provide high quality office accommodation.

MGPA Managing Director Alex Jeffrey said, “We believe there is excellent growth potential for office properties in and around Paris.  This property is extremely well located and once refurbished will be highly attractive to various tenants, thereby taking advantage of that growth.”

“This investment is consistent with MGPA’s strategy of extracting full value from its assets through active asset management.  We are very pleased to be partnering on this investment with GCI, a company that has specialised in the Paris office market for many years.”

Sharon Raingold, Managing Director of GCI said, “This is a top quality building in a great location. We are delighted to have MGPA as our partner on this investment as they share our active asset management approach and our positive view on the prospects for Montrouge.”    

In this transaction, MGPA and GCI were advised by Maitre Vincent Roussel and Gide Loyrette Nouel. AXA REIM France was advised by Etude Cheuvreux and Kéops SA.

MGPA is making the investment on behalf of MGP Fund II which closed in September last year with equity commitments of US$1.3 billion.

This acquisition follows the establishment by MGP Fund II of the Logiffine joint venture with Concerto Développement SAS (Concerto), a company of Affine group, which is developing a €250 million portfolio of major logistics distribution parks in France.  MGPA and London & Regional Properties Limited (L&R) have also recently entered into a 50/50 joint venture for the ownership of Rondo 1, a prime office building in Warsaw, Poland.

“We remain very positive about the property market in Europe and are continuing to see attractive acquisition opportunities in a diverse range of locations and real estate sectors and anticipate making further announcements about acquisitions in the near future,” said Mr Jeffrey.