pbb backs Paris development with €150m package

Pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank has provided a €150 million loan for an 18,500 square metre Paris office development.

The scheme is the redevelopment of the Centre Marine Pépinière, two buildings at 15 rue Laborde in the 8th district in the city’s central business district.

It will be carried out by French REIT Eurosic and investors Predica (a Crédit Agricole Assurance affiliate) and ACM (Credit Mutuel Group) who acquired the investment in an all-equity deal in January 2015.

The new loan will partly refinance the acquisition and partly finance 100 percent of the development works and related costs.

Tenant, the Ministry of Defence is leaving the building and the new scheme will be completed in the first half of 2018.

In September, Eurosic took over French property company Foncière de Paris, almost doubling its portfolio from around €2.6 billion to over €5.5 billion, after seeing off a bid from rival Gecina. The enlarged company covers all of Paris’s main office markets.

Norbert Muller, pbb’s head of real estate finance in Western Europe, said Eurosic and its partners “have strong track records.

“We are proud to work on this important development project in the heart of Paris CBD. The French market remains highly attractive for pbb.”