26 June 2020
Deals | France | Real Estate Transactions & Financing
ICAWOOD (low-carbon office development fund for the Grand Paris area, launched by Icamap and Ivanhoé Cambridge), WO2 and BNP Paribas Real Estate have just announced the collection of EUR 650 million to launch the Arboretum project. Borne for over four years by BNP Paribas Real Estate and WO2, this campus project covering 126,000 sq.m. of low-carbon offices and service premises, built out of wood in a 25-hectare park and bordered by the Seine, is located in Paris' western suburb of Nanterre La Défense, near the rail hub of Nanterre-Université. Arboretum is the largest non-let ("immeuble en blanc") office development programme to be launched since Cœur Défense in 1997. With a capacity of 8 to 10,000 people, Arboretum in the ideal prototype of post-Covid offices, and will be the greatest example of WO2's protocol for health and well-being in offices.
EUR 220 million of own funds are necessary for the construction of the project, and have been pledged by ICAWOOD, BNP Paribas Real Estate, FFP (the listed investment company owned by Établissements Peugeot Frères) and a consortium of institutional and family investors.
Added to own funds is a EUR 432 million green loan structured by BNP Paribas, with Allianz Real Estate, AEW and Ostrum AM as part of a mandate on behalf of an institutional investor and a debt fund managed by BNP Paribas Asset Management. The financing covers both the acquisition and the construction. This is a first, in terms of amount and ecological commitment, in non-let project financing.
Gide advised ICAWOOD and the consortium of investors, with a team headed by partners Frédéric Nouel and Constantin Miliotis, working with associates Marion Toualit and Candice Veroux on corporate and real estate aspects; partner Laurent Modave and associate Julien Aillet on tax aspects; partner Laetitia Lemercier and associates Aurélien de Casteja and Clara Toubert on financing aspects.
BNP Paribas Real Estate was advised by Lacourte Raquin Tatar.
The lenders (BNP Paribas and Allianz) were advised by De Pardieu Brocas Maffei and notarial office Wargny Katz.
Icawood, its partners and lenders were advised by notarial study Wargny Katz, while the outgoing round was advised by notarial office Thibierge.